Dear Friends,

Welcome to today’s Journal entry, which begins with a heartfelt conversation among Windhorse Community Programs members—moderated by Chuck Knapp and JoAnn Burton—about coping with the pandemic from the perspective of the Hero’s Journey, a notion made popular by Joseph Campbell. In addition to the podcast, we’re so pleased to be offering a paper recently written by JoAnn Burton, titled, Hero’s Journey of Recovery: A New Narrative for People with Long Term Mental Health Issues. Between first-person accounts of our experiences of the “hero’s journey” in the podcast, and JoAnn’s paper, this entry presents an unusual opportunity to learn about what we know to be powerful help for those of us on a path of recovery.

Each of us has an inner hero. Some of us were fortunate enough to have parents who nurtured our little inner hero and helped point us in a good direction in life. Others of us had to figure things out for ourselves and came to understand that we needed help. Sometimes, it takes a while and many wrong paths to find what is most useful. And those who are willing to guide us become trusted mentors and allies.

Of course, dragons confront every traveler on such a journey, and coronavirus has been our particular foe since March. As you will hear from Alicia, Joe, and myself, we have needed to “suit up and show up” for the obvious external threat and those inner dragons produced by our own thoughts and fears.

The Hero’s Journey surely gave me a compass with which I could direct my steps.

Thank you, JoAnn, for encouraging us to find our inner heroes, and showing us how to do that!

Our own inner hero is there waiting for each of us. If you haven’t found yours yet, you will.

Dig in!

Laura Hale