An excerpt from Sacred Silence:

Introduction
The Missing Chapter

Part of living as a whole person is integrating all chapters of your life into one self.
We each have some chapters that are much lengthier than others, yet all are vital pages of our stories, spotlighting transition and growth, as well as a deeper understanding of why we are who we are in the present, bearing in mind that we are as ever-evolving as the ocean’s tides and the stars in our solar system.

What do you do when a chapter, essentially the most important chapter in your life,
is missing?  What do you do when you realize there is great benefit in learning a seemingly unattainable truth? In my identity-defining situation, I decided to unearth my missing chapter like an archaeological dig, not hunting for only the life-sized fossils, but sifting through the grains of sand and valuing the voice of each one for the tidbit tale that each tells.

Three years after my digging began, while not having enough bones to reconstruct my own museum quality Triceratops, I did have enough artifacts to piece together an interesting display to share and to perhaps enlighten others. As the curator of my missing chapter, choosing whether or not to place this part of my life on exhibit was a lot more harrowing than unveiling prehistoric dinosaur bones to the world. You see, these were my bones, excavated through determination, anxiety, pain, sleepless nights, and tears, while weathering the storms that this brought in personal relationships. There were those in my life who would have much preferred my chapter remain buried for all time and saw no value in me pursuing my dig.

I have chosen to share this unearthed memoir, in the hopes that readers will consider that we are guided down some dark paths in our lives in order to receive the gift of enlightenment of self and to then share with the world around us. Inviting everyone into the inside of my heart has not been a decision I reached with ease, as you might imagine. After all, it’s been a daunting challenge for me to travel where I’ve been over the past three years, so to consider revisiting this journey to allow it to take shape and form in words was only reached through prayer, meditation, motivation from beloved family and friends, and a personal metamorphosis.