I believe it was the power of Spirit that gave me the title of this book A Lily Grows in the Mud when I was not even thinking of writing or knew I could write. It took 18 years before the first pen would meet paper. During these years I was on my journey learning from the lessons being thought to me. I did not understand that I was in school, but by the time I started writing this book, it was clear. I was inspired by my heavenly helpers. I wrote 10 pages a day and in four short months I completed it. The book (A Lily Grows in the Mud) started out as a talk I gave using Paul's (Disciple of Jesus) journey to Rome on a ship that fell apart. I use this as a metaphor for social, emotional, spiritual and personal relationships of how life can start one way but ends in a different direction along the way. The shame and guilt of our life stories often leaves us carrying heavy emotional, psychological and spiritual burdens, but had it not been for our life's trouble we would not have discovered our God given potential. It is during these times we discover who we are, when we were standing betwixt the devil and the deep blue sea that we take that leap of faith and the wings we did not know we had bid us to fly over mountains of life's troubles and discrepancies until destiny is accomplished. I came from a good, hardworking family riddled with dysfunction on both sides. I was molested during my childhood leaving me with shame and guilt. I lived the rest of my childhood, adolescent and early adulthood with a shattered self-esteem, emotions that were like broken glass. I made poor choices with friends, sought love in all the wrong places and formed alliances with those who did not see me no more than I saw myself at the time. My life had become so toxic that I sought a way out to change my life. I charted many familiar and unfamiliar territories to discover myself, purpose and to change my situation. I discovered that right associations were everything to my success and recovering those shattered pieces of me. I have discovered through this journey that I already have what I needed to succeed in life. It was lying dormant under my muddied life. It took an awakening to who I was through affirming, fasting, praying, speaking and believing that I can accomplish whatever it is that I wanted. You can do the same if you align yourselves among the right friends by asking your spiritual guide who is on the inside of you for help. Your ship might have fallen apart like mine did through family troubles, and molestation. Yours might have gone awry through a bad marriage, unruly children, health conditions, or whatever your mud maybe today, we all have something to carry on this journey; this book is not for blame or scorn but to show that you can discover yourselves, find purpose, and live that life of peace that you so desires.
