Chapter 1
For The Want Of A Friend
Chapter 2
Homeward Bound
Chapter 3
Madagascar
Coming soon on:
Apple Books | Audible | Amazon
About
The Story
MJ Masters is 14 years old and in the hospital because she intentionally took too much of her medication in an attempt to end her life. She meets a friend, attends a mindfulness camp, learns to make friends with her own emptiness, and resolves in her own heart that she is enough, just as she is – a perfectly ordinary and beautifully unique expression of the universe experiencing itself.
Then all of that is tested when bullying at school is taken to an extreme, and tensions at home become almost too much to bear.
Is there anything to hold on to?
This story was inspired by several families dear to my heart, and one in particular. It was written with a tender heart. It is overly didactic in many parts, and I beg your patience with that. It is still an early draft.
If you're reading this, I would love your feedback. I'd like to develop the story from here after getting feedback from as many people as possible so that, with a little luck, the final draft might be something truly helpful to the people who read it.
PLEASE BE AWARE:
This content includes bullying and teen suicidal ideation, discussions about God, mindfulness and mental health, and the context of a family being torn apart by clashing ideologies and a greedily polarized political system.
About
The Author
From 2011 to 2016 Selene studied mindfulness and design through work and practice with the Plum Village community, at both Deer Park Monastery, and the Thich Nhat Hanh Foundation.
This was an unbelievably fortunate circumstance. She is committed to paying it forward for the rest of her life.
She has been working as a design strategist through her design firm rippleworks for over a decade, learning all kinds of things to be helpful in some very cool contexts over the years.
Selene Hoover
About
The Project
There exists the potential to build a community of support, and a network of resources to help teens and their families develop resiliency, and the habits of deep listening, and loving speech.
Please remember, the story is still quite an early draft.
Thanks for supporting this project!