One of the perks of being Denver Books Examiner is the opportunity it provides to interact with other writers, locally and otherwise, and help promote their works. Cyndi Kennedy’s When You Journeyed Homeward, detailing her husband’s struggle with frostbite after a history-making mountain climb in Kathmandu, Nepal, and the still greater heights surmounted by the couple after the technical success of placing the first American woman atop lofty Cho Oyu, is one such example. Like Michelle Hunri’s Climbing Clean in Elk Dud, the settings are often desolate and mountainous, but this time at one remove, and thousands of miles from the Rockies. As Cyndi’s husband Jerry recovers from his hard won debilitation, he recounts every step of the treacherous journey to his spouse and amanuensis, who says, “A climb is its own articulation, its own art form . . . it was necessary to find a single voice to tell you this story; but the big climbs are Jerry’s.” Mountain climbing is a born metaphor of the soul’s upward struggling for distinction in the muddled ocean of consciousness and love. The ideal relationship between two people in love opr a team of mountain climbers includes community, trust and openness to development. Everyone’s heard of disastrous mountain climbing accidents, but how often studied the victims’ convalescence, involving the same precarious heights of possibility, the same soul crushing shortfalls, and the same toll inflicted on comfort and structure. It takes the same zest and precision to make your way forward in life as it takes to brink the highest peaks. When You Journeyed Homeward relates the beautiful abstract reflection as well as the object reflected. Cynthia Kennedy is a practicing lawyer who lives with her husband, Jerry, and three adopted Nepali children, in Lafayette, Colorado. Her screenplay, “Buddha Eyes” won the 2007 Columbine Award from the Moondance Film Festival and Best Creenplay at the FAIF International Film Festival. When You Journeyed Homeward, available online and from Boulder’s Eolus Press, is the winner of the CIPA (Colorado Independent Publishers) award.
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