by
William Hathaway
It is a book that changes my life. An empty book. A book of blank pages. Nine inches by six inches, with a meditative photograph of ocean waves on the glossy cover. It holds but a hundred pages of blank cream beckoning for the hue of my own pen. The color of my own thoughts.
A Journal.
Some years before discovering this magnificent, wondrous book of change, I had been killed in an automobile accident. My small car and a tractor-trailer embraced on a rural center-line. Angels of mercy returned life to me while flying in the helicopter to the hospital. As my body healed over the next months, my mind became ravaged with a new affliction. The professionals would later diagnose it as post traumatic stress disorder. The dark depression that followed was untreated, undiagnosed, and brought me to the edges of life once more.
A flamed burned inside my soul to share my experience with others. After my recovery, I didn't want to simply open up about what depression and PTSD are like. I wanted to share how perfectly capable we all are of overcoming the challenges and the obstacles that life offers. I wanted to talk about the magnificent energy that we hold in our hearts to do greater things with our lives. I wanted to talk about the deeper meaning of a journey through depression.
I can still feel that small journal in my hands on that thundering afternoon. I listened only to the rain and began to fill those blank pages with scattered thoughts, ideas, ramblings, musings and sketches of content of a story that I felt could offer hope. In the next week the pages offer a place for contemplation and reflection. Having a safe place to write opened an invitation for allowance and acceptance of so many thoughts and feelings that I was still carrying inside my mind, my heart.
In the next journal, the thoughts became clearer. In the journal after that, the thoughts became chapters and the chapters became a book.
Start at Hope, A Journey Through Depression is just a beginning for me. I continue to journal and am quilting together the patches of thought that will be my next book. I am writing, I am blogging, I am speaking about overcoming depression and discovering a new journey towards healing and wellness.
No matter where my journey takes me, I always make certain that I have a journal close at hand. These are the blank pages that offer me a chance to continue. These are the blank pages that keep whispering in request. The blank pages that ask me to wrap my arms around life and never let go.
The Journal; to me, it is the book that matters most.
Bio
William Hathaway is a survivor and a sought after author and speaker. Through his heart-felt writing and inspiring presentations, William shares his transformative journey through depression and post traumatic stress disorder. His passion for hope and for life opens a dialogue for understanding depression and the overwhelming stigma of mental illness. His first book, Start at Hope, A Journey Through Depression is available in ebook and paperback at Amazon.com
Message from Mari: I read William's book this past weekend. In one sitting! His honesty, his truth, his genuineness touched my heart and soul. His words resonated with many previously unexplored feelings and experiences. Thank you William!
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