Sahara
 |
|
While trying to think of what I could possibly write to encourage people to read Beyond the Reflection, I remembered a letter a dear friend had written after reading my book for the first time. It brought me to tears and renewed my courage to publish...
- "I must say, your book moved and inspired me beyond my wildest dreams. It filled me with a storm of emotions, lots of tears and nearly as many smiles... I feel your innocence and your torment, your strength and your weakness, your bliss and your sadness... As I journey at your side through a river of emotion and enlightened discovery... I witness your continuing evolution, I see you shed your painful cocoon and spread delicate wings, the splendorous beauty of your being... I cry, I love and I learn."
- -D. Berarducci
Beyond the Reflection is more like reading a diary than a book, the innermost pages of one's soul. Within it, you will experience what it is like to walk in another's shoes, feel another's world and struggles along the way, hopefully gaining more insight and understanding for your own. This book is meant to be a guide, a map for people of all ages, but especially young people reminding you that we all feel pain and we all are searching for love and acceptance.
After reading this book, I hope you will feel like you know me, like I am a friend giving you loving advice. But let me introduce myself with this- I am just like you, a human being trying to find her way through this crazy world.
During a very difficult time of my life, when I was trying to find ways besides alcohol and drugs to cope with adolescence, I began keeping journals to help me try to make sense of my life. What unfolded was an incredible healing process, and a book that changed my life forever.
I feel so blessed to have been able to find my way out of the reckless life I was living which included clubbing and partying regularly, and the sex, alcohol and drugs that went along with this lifestyle. But a part of me, the part that feels connected to others and the world around me, still felt a sense of anguish for other young people. So many of my friends, and youth in general, seek happiness and freedom through this 'alternative' life. They seem to be lost without a sense of direction, meaning or hope.
In today's world we are so influenced by a TV and media who have little conscience about the messages they are sending to kids. We drink in the violence, the meaningless sex and dramas portrayed and begin to shape our personal worlds around these images. And then we are criticized and blamed for our addictions and rebellion by the very people who created us. Most of us don't really want to be so screwed up but we don't know how we got to be that way or how to change.
I share my own journey with you now, to offer hope to those who feel they have lost it. Also I will share some insight about life and healing that I discovered along the way. I am not a psychologist or an English major, or even a college graduate for that matter. As I said, I am just a person telling my story. So I open the pages of my soul, in hopes that you will walk away changed too.
--As children we are innocent and look upon the world with wonder and uncritical eyes. As we grow towards adulthood something happens that makes us forget how to experience life freshly and naively. Children grow up to be adults who wish to be children again. We lose our sense of mystery, imagination and openness in our everyday lives. We become the adults of this world who are responsible for raising and teaching children and yet we are the same people who are starting wars, neglecting the homeless, raising taxes and polluting the earth. So why has this endless cycle continued for centuries?--
--I remember the first time I went 'clubbing' in Chicago. I borrowed an ID and easily got into the club. Everyone standing in line outside looked different. Different from the strangers I went to school with everyday who made me feel like an outsider. I was intrigued by the way they were dressed, mostly in black with strange hair, nose-rings, Doc Martens and a cigarette in hand. Immediately I felt more comfortable with who I was because I was surrounded by, what my high school friends called 'freaks.' Meaning, people who were different from the norm, who seemed to thrive on their strangeness.
As I entered the darkness of the club, I was instantly lured by the music. It seemed to be erotically pulling me forward into its pounding rhythms. Already I wanted to know more about this deliciously strange 'underground' world. I felt like a virgin again within it. Every person had an air of danger and excitement and a distaste for the normal. The dance floor felt like I was a part of some primal culture whose people were uninhibited. This scene seemed to feed upon my increasing dislike for the everyday world with its everyday people. I fell dangerously in love with this dark club, its dark people and especially the dark music that seeped into my veins and made me feel high--
--In a major magazine, they began an article about teens with these words, 'If you went by the headlines, here is what you would believe: That teens are promiscuous, sniffing, snorting, shooting unduly pierced, gun-toting demons who are a danger to themselves and those around them-- They have unprotected sex, conceive children, then leave them in garbage bins-- They all probably should have been put on Ritalin from the time they started teething-- Is this a fair picture of the 27 million 13-19 year olds?' I certainly don't think so. I believe the youth of America has the ability to prove those who believe this Wrong. We can use the positive gifts our ancestors have left us and even undo some of the messes they have made. If we can start cleaning up our own acts and stop feeling so helpless, I know we can make great changes in the world. After all, we are tomorrow's leaders, so let's do it right and with some style!--
