Dark Roads and Strangers
A Heart's Journey Through Pain
by
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Long, so long ago it seems I picked up the pieces of a broken life, a broken woman, a broken heart. The pieces of this broken life and broken woman were slowly put back together. But the heart is a different story.
Try as I might all the pieces would not go back, many being held by very loose threads, with numerous cracks and fault lines that run very, very deep. And so because of this, I took this fragile heart, a heart that has so much love to give and put it away inside a very small box, carefully placing it inside lest a piece fall off and be lost.
I closed the lid and locked this little box behind a door into which no one could enter, for you see I threw away the key. Somehow, some way the key was found and the door unlocked.
With tender, caring hands that box was opened and gently, ever so gently, my wounded heart was touched. I let this happen. I let you in.
You hold my heart in your hands. Please hold it gently, for it is oh, so fragile. Look closely and you will see the tears it continues to cry. Please treat it tenderly for it has so much love to give.
But now I fear I must take back my heart for I was clearly mistaken. The heart that was broken has now been wounded again, the cracks opened wide. I must take it back, I must protect it again from the hands that I thought held it tenderly. I will lock it safely away once more where only I can peer within and remember the memory of what I thought was. This time I will destroy the key so no one can ever find it again for the pain is too great and my heart is too fragile to be touched like that again.
So I will place my heart into that little box once more and I will put a piece of you along side it, as a remembrance of something and someone who touched me, remembering everything but the pain. I lock this door with sadness for my heart was filled with so much hope.
Good-bye dear heart, you’re safe now. No one can hurt you again. The door is locked, the key destroyed. Rest now and remember only the good things.
Is that what you do to hurting hearts,
hearts that are in pain
you give them hopes,
you give them dreams
and let them live again?
And then when this has happened,
when high to the heavens they fly;
that is when you tell them,
it was all just a lie.
So to the earth they plummet,
from their journey to the stars;
hopeless, hurt and dying,
love gone--never more.
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About the Book
After twenty-five years of marriage, a way of life ended for Michele and she found herself struggling to discover herself again. In the midst of this journey to self-discovery, a diagnosis of breast cancer throws her world into turmoil once again. However, it was what occurred to her during this dark time of cancer that plunged her deeper into a pain she never imagined, a pain from the hand of someone she had allowed herself to believe in and to trust.
"It was from those darkest moments, those moments of excruciating pain and deep anguish that I wrote the words that follow in this book," she writes. It was a betrayal of her trust and the ensuing heartache that enabled her to write. "1 wrote then as part of my struggle to survive..." she goes on to say.
This is a woman's heart exposed, a woman who has allowed us to share in her journey through the darkness and feel with her the anguish of a heart shattered. It is the journey of a heroic woman, a woman who suffers as we all suffer, who despite the darkness and pain, knows that her God is leading her.
Michele opens her heart of pain now in the hope that by doing so, someone may be helped through their own pain. She has become for us a wounded healer.
About the Author
This is the first endeavor at authoring for Michele and one she admits to entering into reluctantly, for opening one's heart is always risky.
Michele has been involved for many years in the charismatic prayer movement. She has been a member of the music ministry in her prayer group as well as a member of a healing ministry. She facilitated a small faith sharing community for many years. She gives of her time at a soup kitchen in her town, believing that she receives far more in return than she gives. Her current ministry is focused on ministering to women, who like herself, are dealing with breast cancer.
Michele resides in the same small town she was born and raised in on the south shore of Long Island, New York. She has two grown children, a daughter and a son.