Mental wellness, Earth-spiritual practice. Ecosexuality.
Sue Westwind writes from America’s prairie woodlands.
When author Sue Westwind marries at midlife and moves to sixty acres of prairie woodland, she imagines that her life will now be fulfilled in ways she has always longed for. Yet the man she marries soon chafes at the demands of their rural life and tragically loses the passion for her that once had assured her their union would always be idyllic. As her husband grows silent and distant both from her and the land they live on, she finds erotic fulfillment in the swells and folds of the earth itself, in trees and creeks, in deer and stones. She awakens to the land erotic, and in her ever-expanding and intimate connection to it, she discovers a kind of earth-based sexuality that rejuvenates her and gives her strength to endure.
Born into a family full of shame and secrets about their legacy of mental illness, Sue Westwind received her own set of labels when she ran away from home in 1969. Depression, anxiety, migraines, and chronic fatigue grew worse as she grew older.
The story could have ended there: a lifetime spent taking prescription drugs to treat her myriad list of illnesses. But an open mind and a desire to heal led Westwind to an extraordinary body of research. She learned that our toxic Earth plays a dangerous role in the human epidemic of bad moods and violent behavior.
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This is a hymn to the longest night, To darkness that decimates the light, Long hours we question, wonder and stew: What crouches beyond in next year’s new? Forget the calendar
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