It’s with a great amount of excitement (and, admittedly, a big sigh of relief and hot cup of vanilla caramel tea!) that I get to announce the launching of Moving Forewords as a hub for personal resilience stories. What once was an individually owned blog featuring guest posts from contributors is now an authors’ collective (…more on that emerging trend here) with a mission to share true journeys of perseverance: from grief to healing, abandonment to belonging, strife to peace, and everywhere in between.

We’re hardly the first pioneers of this concept. Personal transformation stories—rife with hurdles to leap, mountains to climb and rough seas to brave—have been ingrained in us for millennia. They appear as ancient legends in aboriginal cave paintings and as etched hieroglyphics on sandstone pillars. They get passed down to children from the time they’re first born into this world in the form of fairy tales, fables and storybooks. They persist today through religious doctrines and systems of belief. They’re how everything from Disney to the literary genre of memoir exists. These stories of growth and change are how we make sense of the world around us, as well our places within it. They’re so fundamental to our human experience, in fact, that—as mythologist and writer Joseph Campbell suggested—they seem to be embedded in our psyche. (Check out this awesome video tribute to Campbell’s idea, which he termed the “hero’s journey”, below.)

“The hero’s journey myth exists in all human cultures and keeps getting updated because we humans reflect on our world through symbolic stories of our own lives. You leave your comfort zone, have an experience that transforms you. And then you recover and do it again.”

So, no—we’re not unearthing a new field of thought here at Moving Forewords. (Remember that time that Heraclitus said “The only constant is change”? Or my personal favorite of his: “No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.” …Those were circa 500 BC.) What we are doing is adding a current-day, real-to-life touch to this long-standing tradition. We’ll be promoting true personal stories that celebrate resilience and renewal through facing life’s many challenges: heartbreak, divorce, addiction, financial distress, shame and stigma… you name it, we’ll cover it. These stories will be ones we’ve published ourselves—both via our blog and other media sources, as well as ones that we find while panning for gold in popular news columns, literary magazines, and elsewhere in the vastness that is the World Wide Web.

Why? Because, like stones being skipped across the surface of a pond, each touch point ripples out. As we see it, one good thing begets another. And another… and another… and another. Through sharing our trials and the ways we’ve weathered them in our writing, our hope is to create a safe and encouraging space for others who can relate. But it’s more than that, really. We’ll be gathering a community of readers and followers who wish to engage with us on the topics of facing personal adversity—in its infinite shapes and forms—and realize their own innate potential to pull through.

…So! Over the coming weeks, months, and yes… years!… (“To infinity and beyond,” right? 🙂 ) this lovely little piece of cyberspace will unite writers and readers who wish to engage in a dialogue that emboldens the spirit and builds grit. Now, it’s going to take some time to work toward this vision, so hang tight while we gather our talented member authors. In the meantime, we’ll be sharing some must-reads via our newsletter and social media channels. Be sure to check out the new site, follow along @movingforewords on Twitter, and join our (NEW!) Facebook group. And if you have any favorite resilience stories to share (be they books, published personal essays and op-eds, etc.), be sure to post them in the comments below, or send them our way.

Thanks for coming along for the ride!

Dana Mich
Moving Forewords