Welcome to Project Fourtress

“The world breaks everyone and, afterward, many are strong at the broken places.”

– Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms

While I could not tell you the first time I felt pain, I remember vividly the first time I felt utterly alone.

Why this is I have no idea. Maybe it’s because, as human beings, pain is a constant companion, and we just get used to it. Our tolerance grows and pain becomes a part of living.

But loneliness, not so much.

From birth, we are accompanied, surrounded, carried, looked after, taken care of. During our first years on this earth, most of us don’t know what “alone” means. Usually, our first, hard experience with loneliness comes at an age when we are old enough to remember that distinct feeling embracing us for the very first time. And in that moment, also, we feel pain. After all, pain and loneliness often walk hand in hand, right?

I lived with that very pain for a long time. But one day, I decided I had had enough and started to look for a way out. My solution was to talk about it. I thought that, perhaps by talking to others who shared the pain of loneliness, I could find some relief.

To my surprise and delight I discovered that talking and sharing helped me. And not only did it help me, it seemed to help others, too. It was a win-win.

This discovery was the birth of the idea for Project Fourtress. Project Fourtress is a place where we can get together, share our pain, and not feel quite so alone. This is the place where we will find shelter and get stronger. This fortress is not about withdrawing or hiding, but about gathering our thoughts, drawing our life blueprints, and getting stronger -- together.

Project Fourtress is here to share experiences, defeats, and victories. To let you know and understand that you are not alone. This is a place where, hopefully, we will learn more about how to deal with pain and, even more than that, how to overcome it. Pain in any of its forms and shapes. Pain that uses any name: injury, depression, loneliness, defeat. Sometimes, it will just be about taking a much-needed respite.

This is only the beginning of what I expect (and hope) to become a long journey. In my mind plans, ideas and visions of a cherished future dance and fly. No dreams, though. Dreams are fine, but dreams alone don’t get you anywhere. Work, strategy, consistency, sacrifice and commitment do, and that’s why I prefer them.

Today, my invitation to you is this: come visit us regularly and, if you feel like it, share your thoughts, your feelings, your pains. This is a healing place, and you are invited to be a part of it. This Fourtress will not be a hideout, but rather a shelter.

Let’s take control of our lives, because we can, and because we deserve it.

Welcome to Project Fourtress.

Let’s begin this journey.

* Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961), was an American novelist, short-story writer, journalist, and sportsman.