Sightlines: The View of a Valley Through the Voice of Depression (Middlebury Bicentennial Series in Environmental Studies)

For twelve years, writer Terry Osborne devoted himself to an intense exploration of the physical environment near his home in the Connecticut River Valley. The more he walked the land, the more deeply he came to know its hills, wetlands, and swamps. But his growing intimacy with the area inspired something unexpected. The valley, formed by colliding and dividing continents, scoured by massive glaciers, and cut by rivers and streams, began to reveal and resonate with Osborne's internal landscape, long shaped from within by an unyielding depressive voice.Osborne gradually discovers that the present -- both physical and mental -- is built on layers laid down in both the remote and recent past, layers that interpenetrate and circulate continually, transforming fragments into woven wholes. In Sightlines, he lyrically and movingly recounts how his external journey initiated and gave form and substance to a profound and therapeutic personal quest.