Beauty for Ashes

I would like to offer a sneak peek into my new book of poetry, Testimony: Poems From the Heart. This is Beauty for Ashes. I do not normally do this, but I would like to give you some back story to how God laid this poem on my heart and the looooooong journey we have been on together (the poem and I). 

In June of 2006 I entered residential treatment. I was hopeless and had been dealing with depression, self harm, PTSD, anxiety, and a gambit of other things. Let's just say I found all the destructive ways to cope and none of them worked long term. I was failing out of school and just generally not a very functional person. I saw no light at the end of my tunnel and considered this treatment at the time my last hope.

I have always used writing as an outlet since a very early age, but when it came to poetry everything I wrote was from this place of despair. I thought that was the only way I could write. I was scared of getting better because I did not know how I would be able to create. I did not know how to navigate the world with joy and wholeness.

Beauty for Ashes was the title of a writing prompt a friend in treatment and I gave ourselves to see if we could write from a place of hope. The initial poem was maybe 15 lines at most. That is how it stayed for years. I graduated from treatment and continued on my journey to healing with LOTS of ups and downs. LOTS! In a moment of clarity two summers ago I decided to revisit the poem with new eyes, and the new insight I had gained from finding freedom from so many hurts. 

My hope and prayer is that this new version meets you right where you are and that you are able to open yourself up to the hope that there is freedom and light in whatever your circumstances are.

Peace and Blessings.