The Promise

dear Savior’s birth.

Less than six weeks later, denial could no longer hold the physical forces within my body at bay, and I gave birth to a little boy, my father’s son.  He died in my arms a short time later…

                                                     ~~~~~~~~~~

I sat there in the darkened theater listening to Deniece, witnessing the dancing strobes, and watching from within a panorama of my life.  There was no sorrow or regret, the healing had happened for me years before.  Yet, except for when I wrote my memoir, PURSUIT OF LIGHT: An Extraordinary Journey, it was so rare for me to reference my current life with any part of my past.  Yesterday had become like a past life – irrelevant compared to today.

And that’s when it struck me.  It had been exactly fifty years (minus twelve days) since I had last sung that carol in the choir.  In those fifty years I had gone through hell, and then rose above it to find the depth of my own being.  Fifty years, during which I had journeyed from a child whose parents had literally tried to kill her to a woman who became a successful therapist, speaker, author, and advocate.  A woman who is known for her laughter and passion for life.  I looked at my husband, the man of my dreams seated on my left, and thought about my three adult children and outrageous grandchildren.  I was filled with wonder!  Fifty years ago I didn’t think I’d live to be eighteen, then I didn’t think I would live to be thirty.  Yet here I was, a happy, prospering, fulfilled woman.  I was stunned by the wonder of it!  How a child, in the midst of horror, found a way to hold on to a spark of light of what she might be and keep that spark alive.  How children and adults all over the world today in the direst of circumstances manage to breathe life into the possibility of themselves and a better tomorrow.  The magnificence, the dominance, the power of the human spirit!  My heart was filled with awe of what my journey had been and what possibilities still lay in front of me.  Awe for others and what their journeys have been.  What a privilege to have a life, and to be a part of a life force that will not quit, that perseveres for the promise of all that we can be both individually and as a collective.

It’s winter once again.  Even in California you can tell.  No snow, but there’s a chill in the air.  Another Christmas rolls around.  If this season finds you in difficult times, may you know grace greater than your pain, and love greater than your sorrow.  For whatever our personal challenges are, the greatest aspect of our truest nature as human beings is love.

Peace on earth, good will to all of us whether we are Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, or like me, none of the above.  Peace on earth and good will in our hearts for all that we might be or might choose to become, no matter where we have been or what we have experienced.    

Sandy Brewer is author of Pursuit of Light, An Extraordinary Journey, a rave triumph of the human spirit.  An authentic, true-life page turner, horrific and inspirational, brilliant and compelling, filled with practical teachings of empowerment and compassion.  Beautifully blending wisdom, humor and pathos, it profoundly demonstrates an uplifting pathway out of darkness into light.

www.PursuitOfLight.com

e-mail [email protected]

USA BOOK NEWS selected Pursuit of Light as the winner

of the General Biography category for

THE NATIONAL BEST BOOKS 2008 AWARDS

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