The Reintroduction

 

Recently I had to remind myself why I became an author. It was not to be famous, make a whole lot of money or to be known. It was simply because I was lying in a hospital bed at Howard University Hospital after a life-threatening car accident finally realizing I would not walk and receive summa cum laude with my master's in social work. The Holy Spirit reminded me of my gift of writing, and I began the long journey of creating my first novel Dimes, Profiles and Wives. The main character, Destiny Karen Price, is loosely based on my life and the issues she has had to deal with including surviving child sexual abuse (CSA), bipolar disorder I, and low self-esteem. Some of the scenes happened in real life, like when she was running up and down the hallways of the Towers at Howard University during one of her episodes in her underwear. Destiny, the name, was a play on words as it was destined for me to walk in my gift and take authority by the Holy Spirit to write Christian fiction.

All the stories I write are real testimonies in print. I have been writing my thoughts, behaviors, actions, goals, plans, and dreams in journals and diaries since I was eight years old. I still have every one of them too and I know where the bodies are buried. I often go back through them and find my patterns to find ways I need to change. Writing is therapeutic for me and always have been. Some of the journals are addressed to people while most are not. My favorite person to address is my grandmother, Rachel Lee Cox. She always used to ask me “Are you okay Toy?” and I would answer her “Yeah, granny, I’m okay” even when I knew that I was dying inside. Now a days I have not been addressing the journals to anyone. However, I need to for anyone who finds them and starts reading them to understand who I am. Who am I? I am the woman of God who survived what was meant to kill her, conquered what was meant to destroy her, and continues to persevere through life resiliently by the grace and mercy of God.

I author stories about women like me who have issues with mental health to shine a light at an otherwise dark hole that nobody in our community really wants to have real conversations about. It is a labor of love for me. Each character that I design also has a walk with Christ that shows the reader a realistic view of how to walk out their faith too. None of my characters are perfect because no one on this earth is perfect. They each have some obstacle they are dealing with and have a sinful nature because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. However, by the end of the story they will be giving God all the honor, the glory, the praise, and the worship for He indeed is good. His mercy endures forever, and He loves us all just as we are, even if we are sitting in the mental health ward.

These are pictures my mother took of the aftermath of the accident on March 16, 2003, which was ten days after my birthday and two months before I was set to graduate from Howard University at the top of my class. I praise God for every day since because I really should not be walking this earth. Live your life every day purposely because tomorrow is not promised.

Dimes, Profiles and Wives: Today's Proverbs 31 Woman