Stories of You Books. © Stories of You Inc. 2018
It All Happens Here :
Moore County Stories of Heart,
Health and Healing
Appearing in Winter 2018-2019
The Book
As fellow residents of Moore County, North Carolina, we collaborate with each other in many powerful ways. We feed each other physically, spiritually, and creatively. We strengthen and solace fellow members of our community and are supported in turn. We entertain and educate, celebrate and converse, house and heal, fascinate and yes, sometimes frustrate each other. We provide our neighbors with everything from county governance to spiritual direction and receive those and a myriad other services in return.
No one aspect of our community’s remarkable collaborations is innately more unique or more essential than the rest. Yet one stands out as especially transformative: Moore County’s tradition of healing.
Long before written history, the area was home to gifted healers. Like their fellows beyond Moore County, the Native Americans that inhabited the region as early as the sixth century B.C. had a rich medicine that melded the physical and the mystical.
European settlers brought the long medical traditions of their home countries with them as the new American republic took shape. As nineteenth century railroad networks made Moore County ever more accessible, those suffering from Northern winters or urban grime were drawn to our clean air and relatively mild, dry climate. Both Southern Pines and Pinehurst were first envisioned as health resorts; though the proposed healing communities at “Vineland” and “Tuftsville” never came fully to life, the abundance of doctors and other healers that flocked to our area in the twentieth century more than made up for that.
Today, Moore County is home to thousands of skilled health and medical practitioners who work in an astonishingly diverse array of settings and specialties. Healthcare creates over a quarter of the county’s jobs, reflecting its central role in the region.
Yet healing in Moore County doesn’t stop once we step outside the threshold of a hospital, doctor’s office, or clinic. The allegiance to healthy lifestyles that drives everything from our outdoor sports to our farms and farmer’s markets...the county’s rich array of wellness modalities, from massage to yoga…the deeply rooted faith traditions that sustain souls as well as bodies…an extraordinary group of philanthropic organizations that step in to alleviate suffering [that’s not right yet either]… all of these work alongside our healthcare practitioners to bring Moore County health and wellness in the fullest sense of the words.
It All Happens Here™: Moore County Stories of Heart, Health and Healing collects approximately 35 stories of heart, hope and healing from some of Moore County’s most distinguished—and devoted—healers. The people, situations and strategies described are as diverse as our community itself. Sometimes the healing described is dramatic, sometimes subtle; sometimes it restores the body, while sometimes it links body and spirit. But no matter how different they seem on the surface, these stories all paint a vivid portrait of Moore County’s unique character, provoke fresh insight into what it means to be healthy, and show human nature at its most inventive, caring best.
stories that connect
anthologies that endure
impact that transforms
Like many if not most people, Suzanne and Andy Fox have had their lives up-ended, yet also deepened and enriched, by serious illness. Helping one of his twin sons through the 13-month treatment for life-threatening cancer has given Andy a special interest in the work of healing institutions. Supporting Andy’s family during that challenge, Suzanne also provided day to day help for their parents through their last years; after their deaths, the insights from this journey shaped her books and teaching on caregiving, hospice, bereavement and healing.
Inspired by all of these experiences and the people they encountered along the way, we designed the anthology series initiated with It All Happens Here™: Moore County Stories of Heart, Health and Healing to celebrate the courage of those touched by health challenges, the myriad surprising forms healing can take, and the extraordinary providers who shape the transformative journey from illness into wellness of body and soul.
For more on Andy and Suzanne including their professional backgrounds, please click here.
TM
The Editors
