Walking Toward Peace
Walking Toward Peace

Author: Cindy Ross

Publisher: Mountaineers Books

Published: 2021-04-01

Total Pages: 254

ISBN-13: 1680513044

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Walking Toward Peace shares the intimate stories of veterans who, post-deployment, have wrestled with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Through a process called "ecotherapy," spending time in nature to promote healing and mental health, they have found new tools to deal with issues that have resulted from combat experiences: survivor’s guilt, nightmares, lack of trust, depression, hypervigilance, thoughts of suicide, and lack of purpose. Some veterans profiled here have gone to extremes, spending months on long-distance expeditions, like hiking the 3,100-mile Continental Divide Trail or canoeing the 2,320-mile Mississippi River. For many others, however, brief excursions in the outdoors offer an opportunity for healing. Author Cindy Ross examines current research and perspectives of professional therapists and provides information on organizations devoted to healing veterans in the outdoors. Each featured veteran is depicted in an illustrated portrait. Veterans share their stories, frequently as they sit by a campfire, describing wartime traumas and their present lives. Through their collective voices what becomes clear is that anyone suffering from any form of PTSD may discover the powerful comfort and healing that can be found in the outdoors.

Log Cabin Years
Log Cabin Years

Author: Cindy Ross

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2021-01-19

Total Pages: 314

ISBN-13: 1510763392

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"Cindy Ross is one of today's most eloquent and thoughtful writers on the connection between humans and the natural world."—Richard Louv, New York Times bestselling author The Log Cabin Years is the inspiring story of how award-winning author Cindy Ross and her husband, artist Todd Gladfelter—a young couple totally inexperienced in construction—built a log home using raw trees and without the use of power, how they recycled and used salvage to supplement their materials, and how the home went on to become a living, breathing part of their lives together. With a perfect mix of memoir and practical information, The Log Cabin Years explores the ways the couple not only developed their building skills but defined the values and virtues by which they would continue to live—self-confidence, freedom, and independence. As the cabin walls grew, so, too, did Cindy and Todd—as individuals and as partners. Building a home forced the couple to learn to argue constructively, communicate openly, and work within the parameters of each person’s unique personality. The Log Cabin Years is a great example of how two people can learn to work together through difficult times, both mental and physical. For their efforts, they were able to build, and then live in, a beautiful home—debt free. From hosting Appalachian Trail hikers to offering a sanctuary for recovering veterans, from providing a place to homeschool and teach their children to launching Todd’s very successful career as a chainsaw carving artist, the cabin has given back, fostering creativity, learning, and healing. Building your own home has long been an American dream. The desire and need to live more sustainably has seeped into all aspects of our lives. The Log Cabin Years will speak to all people who wish to live a more sustainable life, empower themselves, build relationships, learn skills, and perhaps create a hand-built home of their own.

Achilles in Vietnam
Achilles in Vietnam

Author: Jonathan Shay

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2010-05-11

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 1439124922

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An original and groundbreaking examination of the psychological devastation of war through the lens of Homer’s Iliad in this “compassionate book [that] deserves a place in the lasting literature of the Vietnam War” (The New York Times). In this moving and dazzlingly creative book, Dr. Jonathan Shay examines the psychological devastation of war by comparing the soldiers of Homer’s Iliad with Vietnam veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. A classic of war literature that has as much relevance as ever in the wake of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Achilles in Vietnam is a “transcendent literary adventure” (The New York Times) and “clearly one of the most original and most important scholarly works to have emerged from the Vietnam War” (Tim O’Brien, author of The Things They Carried). As a Veterans Affairs psychiatrist, Shay encountered devastating stories of unhealed PTSD and uncovered the painful paradox—that fighting for one’s country can render one unfit to be a citizen. With a sensitive and compassionate examination of the battles many Vietnam veterans continue to fight, Shay offers readers a greater understanding of PTSD and how to alleviate the potential suffering of soldiers. Although the Iliad was written twenty-seven centuries ago, Shay shows how it has much to teach about combat trauma, as do the more recent, compelling voices and experiences of Vietnam vets. A groundbreaking and provocative monograph, Achilles in Vietnam takes readers on a literary journey that demonstrates how we can learn how war damages the mind and spirit, and work to change those things in our culture that so that we don’t continue repeating the same mistakes.

Deciding on Trails
Deciding on Trails

Author: Amy Camp

Publisher:

Published: 2020-12-29

Total Pages: 230

ISBN-13:

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DECIDING ON TRAILS is for every local champion, thought leader, and dreamer who knows that trails can make a difference in their community if only their town would recognize the value of trails. Written by one of the first Trail Town practitioners, it covers the history of Trail Towns, recommended best practices, and how the concept has been adapted in dozens of places around the U.S. and Canada. This book is not a "how to" for structuring a Trail Town program. Rather, it is a call to action for trail communities and those dedicated individuals who want to cultivate a trail culture, embrace Trail Town best practices, and to once and for all "decide on trails." If you want more for your community and know that trails are part of the solution, this is the book for you. WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING ABOUT DECIDING ON TRAILS "Deciding on Trails is a 'must read' for communities that hope to integrate trails into their placemaking efforts. Amy's passion, knowledge, and empathy are evident in her work and make her the perfect person to tell this Trail Towns story." --Laura Torchio, Director of Education, Project for Public Spaces "This ground-breaking book addresses head on something that has long been missing from conversations about trails: that they are more than the sum of their economic impact. Amy perfectly captures the many reasons communities ought to connect to their trails. Easy to digest, fun to read, and full of inspiration, this book is destined to become a staple in my trail reference library. " --Mike Passo, Executive Director of American Trails "Deciding on Trails is a book for people who want more for their places. This carefully researched, heartfelt book will easily convince community champions to embrace their trails. And these pages are not only full on inspiration, but this book provides these champions with the tools they need to make the most of their community's trails." --Kent Spellman, Consultant at Rails-to-Trails Conservancy

Reinhold Messner
Reinhold Messner

Author: Reinhold Messner

Publisher: Mountaineers Books

Published: 2014-09-19

Total Pages: 318

ISBN-13: 1594858535

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•*Reveals the long view from an icon who, with age, has added wisdom to his list of accomplishments •*Messner climbing firsts: the world’s fourteen peaks taller than 8000 meters; Everest solo; Everest without supplemental oxygen •*Author of more than 60 books Reinhold Messner: My Life at the Limit, the newest book by the famed mountaineer, is a conversation between Messner and interviewer Thomas Hüetlin, an award-winning German journalist. It reveals a more thoughtful and conversational Messner than one finds in his previous books, with the “talk” between Messner and Hüetlin covering not only the highlights of Messner’s climbing career, but also his treks across Tibet, the Gobi, and Antarctica; his five-year-stint as a member of the European Parliament; his encounter with and study of the yeti; his thoughts on traditional male/female roles; and much more. Readers learn about Messner’s childhood, his thoughts about eating ice cream with girls (against), politics (mostly liberal), and his technique for killing chickens (sharp scissors). Messner is known as one of history’s greatest Himalayan mountaineers, a man who pushed back the frontiers of the possible for a whole generation of climbers. While the interest in My Life at the Limit is that it exposes much more of the man than his climbing career, that career is still utterly remarkable——and Mountaineers Books is proud to present this book, which is core to our mission, to audiences across North America. ***For a limited time, donors to our Legends and Lore series will receive a signed copy of My Life at the Limit. Click here > to learn more.***

Don't Look Back
Don't Look Back

Author: Achut Deng

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)

Published: 2022-10-11

Total Pages: 268

ISBN-13: 0374389713

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In this propulsive memoir from Achut Deng and Keely Hutton, inspired by a harrowing New York Times article, Don't Look Back tells a powerful story showing both the ugliness and the beauty of humanity, and the power of not giving up. I want life. After a deadly attack in South Sudan left six-year-old Achut Deng without a family, she lived in refugee camps for ten years, until a refugee relocation program gave her the opportunity to move to the United States. When asked why she should be given a chance to leave the camp, Achut simply told the interviewer: I want life. But the chance at starting a new life in a new country came with a different set of challenges. Some of them equally deadly. Taught by the strong women in her life not to look back, Achut kept moving forward, overcoming one obstacle after another, facing each day with hope and faith in her future. Yet, just as Achut began to think of the US as her home, a tie to her old life resurfaced, and for the first time, she had no choice but to remember her past.

Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace
Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace

Author: Maxine Hong Kingston

Publisher:

Published: 2016-03-15

Total Pages: 624

ISBN-13: 9781935646235

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" Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace" is a harvest of creative, redemptive storytelling-nonfiction, fiction, and poetry-spanning five wars and written by those most profoundly affected by it. This poignant collection, compiled from Kingston's healing workshops, contains the distilled wisdom of survivors of five wars, including combatants, war widows, spouses, children, conscientious objectors, and veterans of domestic abuse. " Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace" includes accounts from people that grew up in military families, served as medics in the thick of war, or came home to homelessness. All struggle with trauma - PTSD, substance abuse, and other consequences of war and violence. Through their extraordinary writings, readers witness worlds coming apart and being put back together again through liberating insight, community, and the deep transformation that is possible only by coming to grips with the past. For more than 15 years, National Book Award-winning author Maxine Hong Kingston has led writing-and-meditation workshops for veterans and their families. The contributors to this volume are part of this community of writers working together to heal the trauma of war through art. Maxine Hong Kingston's books-" The Woman Warrior, China Men, Tripmaster Monkey, The Fifth Book of Peace," and others-have won critical praise and national awards. President Bill Clinton presented her with a National Humanities Medal in 1997.

The Beauty in Breaking
The Beauty in Breaking

Author: Michele Harper

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2021-06-29

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 0525537392

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A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A New York Times Notable Book “Riveting, heartbreaking, sometimes difficult, always inspiring.” —The New York Times Book Review “An incredibly moving memoir about what it means to be a doctor.” —Ellen Pompeo As seen/heard on Fresh Air, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, NBC Nightly News, MSNBC, Weekend Edition, and more An emergency room physician explores how a life of service to others taught her how to heal herself. Michele Harper is a female, African American emergency room physician in a profession that is overwhelmingly male and white. Brought up in Washington, D.C., in a complicated family, she went to Harvard, where she met her husband. They stayed together through medical school until two months before she was scheduled to join the staff of a hospital in central Philadelphia, when he told her he couldn’t move with her. Her marriage at an end, Harper began her new life in a new city, in a new job, as a newly single woman. In the ensuing years, as Harper learned to become an effective ER physician, bringing insight and empathy to every patient encounter, she came to understand that each of us is broken—physically, emotionally, psychically. How we recognize those breaks, how we try to mend them, and where we go from there are all crucial parts of the healing process. The Beauty in Breaking is the poignant true story of Harper’s journey toward self-healing. Each of the patients Harper writes about taught her something important about recuperation and recovery. How to let go of fear even when the future is murky: How to tell the truth when it’s simpler to overlook it. How to understand that compassion isn’t the same as justice. As she shines a light on the systemic disenfranchisement of the patients she treats as they struggle to maintain their health and dignity, Harper comes to understand the importance of allowing ourselves to make peace with the past as we draw support from the present. In this hopeful, moving, and beautiful book, she passes along the precious, necessary lessons that she has learned as a daughter, a woman, and a physician.

Walking Point
Walking Point

Author: Perry A. Ulander

Publisher: North Atlantic Books

Published: 2016-05-17

Total Pages: 253

ISBN-13: 1623170125

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A Vietnam War veteran paints a searing portrait of his one-year tour of duty as an Army draftee, shedding light on the emotional and physical casualties of war In this intimate memoir, Perry A. Ulander chronicles with powerful clarity the bewildering predicament he confronted and the fellowship and guidance that transformed him during the year he served as an American GI in the jungles of Vietnam. Conveying with unadorned precision the harrowing experiences that shatter his core beliefs, Ulander also captures the camaraderie and humor of his platoon, the hostility between “lifers” and draftees, the physical hardships of reconnaissance missions, and the unrelenting apprehension underlying everyday life. Ultimately, he describes the surrendering of social norms and accepted identities that allows him to glimpse a previously unimagined realm of heightened awareness. Written after a lifetime of reflection on the nature of war and the effect of violence and domination on the minds and spirits of those forced to practice it, Walking Point offers a powerful narrative for readers with an interest in the effects of war and violence, American involvement in Vietnam, PTSD, and how trauma can be a catalyst for spiritual transformation. Giving voice to profound insights gained through extreme adversity, Ulander movingly captures the depth of trust and commitment among a group of unwitting warriors who struggle to stay alive and sane in unchartered territory.

Wandering Souls
Wandering Souls

Author: Wayne Karlin

Publisher: Hachette UK

Published: 2009-09-29

Total Pages: 376

ISBN-13: 1568586108

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On March 19, 1969, First Lieutenant Homer R. Steedly, Jr., shot and killed a North Vietnamese soldier, Dam, when they met on a jungle trail. Steedly took a diary -- filled with beautiful line drawings -- from the body of the dead soldier, which he subsequently sent to his mother for safekeeping. Thirty-five years later, Steedly rediscovers the forgotten dairy and begins to confront his suppressed memories of the war that defined his life, deciding to return to Viet Nam and meet the family of the man he killed to seek their forgiveness. Fellow veteran and award-winning author Wayne Karlin accompanied Steedly on his remarkable journey. In Wandering Souls he recounts Homer's movement towards a recovery that could only come about through a confrontation with the ghosts of his past -- and the need of Dam's family to bring their child's "wandering soul" to his own peace. Wandering Souls limns the terrible price of war on soldiers and their loved ones, and reveals that we heal not by forgetting war's hard lessons, but by remembering its costs.