Bellin Map of the Great Lakes. Jacques-Nicolas Bellin, 1755. Native American territories are clearly delineated.
Wikimedia Commons. Source: Atlas Homannianus Mathematic-Historice Delineatus, (Homann Heirs, Nuremberg), 1755
When I think of wellness, I can’t help but think of my great aunt Tilley who was trapped in an actual well for a good long while. This is not a play on words. We wish people well, but real wellness is deeply personal. It isn’t the same as health, although these states are often paired. Well-being requires a deep encounter with our experience, and Tilley undoubtedly had that.
Tilley lived with my great uncle Walter in a cabin in the Adirondacks Lake region. They lived a life of woodsy seclusion, simple and close to nature, although no one would have called Walter “contemplative.” I have one childhood memory of him leaping around our living room, acting out the drama of a bear getting up on the roof of his cabin. Walter scared off the bear (which he pronounced “bar”) by firing a shotgun into the air. Boom! No more bar!