welcome! people like us living with or supporting someone with mental illness!



WALDEN

Regular price $15.00

Description: Walden: Selections from the American Classic by Henry David Thoreau. Paperback, 216 pages, 4.25” by 6.75”. In July 1845, Henry David Thoreau built a small cottage in the woods near Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts, and began to write Walden, a chronicle of his communion with nature. Since its first publication in 1854, the work has become a classic, beloved for its message of living simply and in harmony with nature. This abridged edition of Walden features exquisite wood engravings by Michael McCurdy and a foreword by noted author and environmentalist Terry Tempest Williams, who reflects upon Thoreau’s message that as we explore our world and ourselves, we draw closer to the truth of our connectedness.

Story:  In many ways, mental illness is experienced as a condition of contemplation. The very essence of the mental illness can be a distortion in how we experience and contemplate our reality. It can be a scary and stark reality that we see through this lens of mental illness. My own bipolar disorder forced me to contemplate both the future and the past. Perhaps it was avoiding the present that prolonged the worst of my illness.  I contemplated a new reality before me which diverged from the path set by my former self. If I contemplated the past events that led to my break, then I left myself vulnerable to those memories triggering a new episode or frustrating my recovery. It was only when I accepted the present and found hope in contemplating a healthy and productive future that I could move towards recovery.  This recovery journey has largely been one of reconciling my future self with my past to experience the present more and more fully.

Find resources at ForLikeMinds.