This is a book about monsters. Not the cute, laughably incompetent ones you see in animated movies, but the ones you meet in your own life: ugly thoughts, unexpected losses, inexcusable evils.At age twenty, Kate Wolfe-Jenson had already discovered her monster-mind. She was an expert at negative thinking and expecting disaster. Then she was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. Together, the monsters whipped her into a wild dance, MS tapping out fear and sadness and her monster-mind twirling it into depression, rage and grief. It seemed like the monsters would win. A decade after being diagnosed, she discovered that what she knew about the creative process could help her deal with the frustrations of living with chronic illness (and life in general). Through that understanding, she entered into a dance with illness and healing, rather than running from them.Through memoir, essay and fanciful stories, this book explores the landscape of chronic illness, describes its contours and invites you onto the dance floor.
Praise from Readers
“amazing, a beautiful blending of honesty and creativity.” Rev. Bebe Baldwin
“It rang so true for me and my journey after the cancer diagnosis.” Pat Nyman
“only those with a chronic sickness… truly know what it feels like day in and day out. I just gave up because I could never find the words. Your way works. Ed Krawiecki 15-year MS veteran
how to practice sustainable activism
I was 10 years old when I began my life as an activist. In my small Wisconsin hometown, a group of us kids painted oil drums bright co echo turn off the kitchen lors. Helpful adults arranged for them to be scattered around downtown so that people could use them as...
what calls you to take compassionate action?
What if we saw privilege as an invitation to make the world a better place? When Chef Asma Khan was a young girl growing up in India, her father took her to the ruins of the ancestral palace. From there, they could see the remains of the surrounding slums. “It was an...
Finding the whimsy in seasons of change.
Sometimes, you invite change into your life. For example, you get a new job, create a new relationship, move from one place to another. Other times, change crashes down on you, unbidden. You become ill or you are laid off or someone dies or there is fire or flood or...
