Tag: faith

Lessons in Healing From the Aisles of Target

Summer Hammond

August 2016             I’m kneeling in the aisle like a worshipper dropping tears into the white ceramic shell of an armadillo.             What else would you do on your inaugural Target run in a new town you thought you would love but don’t even like? Read more

Summer Hammond

Summer Hammond grew up in rural Iowa and Missouri. After parting ways with her faith, she went on to earn a BA in Literature, teach ninth grade reading, and achieve her MFA from the University of North Carolina-Wilmington. She is the author of three unpublished novels. Her work appears or is forthcoming in Sonora Review, StoryQuarterly, Moon City Review, and Tahoma Review. She is the winner of the 2023 New Letters Conger Beasley Jr. Award for Nonfiction.

Women With Wings

Jude Walsh

During my routine OB appointment, my doctor mentioned that my nipple “looked a little funny.” I had noticed that too. She was fairly certain it was eczema but wondered aloud if I might be willing to have a dermatologist check it. As I had a mole on my neck I Read more

Jude Walsh

Jude Walsh is now more than five years post cancer. She still listens to Libana and still sees smiling children when she hears What a Wonderful World. Retired from education, she focuses on writing now and is grateful for all the new women friends this has brought into her life. Jude writes memoir, personal essays, fiction, and poetry. Her work has been published in Mothers Always Write, Flights Literary Magazine, Indiana Voice Journal, The Manifest-Station, The Story Circle Network Quarterly Journal, The AWW Collection, and numerous anthologies including The Magic of Memoir (2016).

Finding My Voice in Silence

Clementine Bihiga

My daughter came into this world, in silence. My daughter taught me how to give, in silence. My daughter taught me how to love, in silence. You see, at the age of 8, I survived the Rwandan Genocide. Close to a million people died in a short period of 3 Read more

Clementine Bihiga

Clementine Bihiga is an inspirational public speaker and the author of "Happily Broken: Discovering Happiness Through Pain and Suffering". At the age of eight, Clementine and her family were forced to flee their home in Rwanda due to the Genocide and Civil war of 1994 which killed almost a million people in 3 months. Clementine and her family lived as refugees in multiple refugee camps and settlements before they were admitted to the USA in 1999 as refugees. Clementine who faced many life and death situations at a young age including living in refugee camps and waking up among the dead, being bullied as a high school student and losing a daughter, has turned her tragic past into a positive calling of inspiring others to never give up. When Clementine climbed on a "log" in lake Kivu trying to rescue a shirt taken by the waves and finally realizing it was a dead body, she could have given up. When she was almost beaten to death by a motorist on her way home, she could have given up. When she woke up among dead bodies claimed by Malaria, Typhoid, Cholera, etc. she could have given up hope. When she got to the USA and was bullied in high school for being different every single day, she would have quit and given up. Life was unforgiving for Clementine, but she pressed on. Clementine is a prolific linguist who speaks 5 languages, she is actively involved with many organizations such as the Student Leadership Council, World Youth Alliance, the United Nations Agents of Change, the Human Rights Committee, The Student Achievement in Research and Scholarships and the Student Advisory Committee for Foreign Discrimination. Clementine was also selected to be on a panel of the Africana Studies at the Stander Symposium and a panel on International Discrimination. Clementine was able to work as a Campaign Fellow for the United WayShe and intern at the New York State Attorney General's Office. While still in college. After college, Clementine and her husband Chris, who she met in a refugee settlement in Kenya were married. They became proud parents of a son in 2011. As a full-time mother and a full-time employee in Healthcare sales, Clementine decided to also get her Masters Degree. She accomplished this in one year and graduate with a 3.9 GPA with a Masters in Public Administration in HealthCare Administration and also earned a promotion at work for exceeding her sales goals by 160% the same year! She can be seen speaking at many conferences and groups on topics of Self-esteem, Resilience, Working Together, Bullying and Transforming Pain into Happiness

Down Sizing for a Bigger Life

Renee DeMont

Take a moment and imagine… Imagine cutting your bills in half. Imagine making significant changes; affording yourself the opportunity for choices. Imagine clearing out the mounds of clutter in your closets, cabinets, and drawers. Imagine having a home that is well organized, appealing to each of your senses. Imagine starting Read more

Renee DeMont

Renee DeMont is a SURVIVOR. She was born into poverty; spent much of her childhood homeless, living on the streets of Los Angeles, and in foster care. Renee learned early on: life is about adapting to adversity. The greatest gift she ever received? No one expected anything from her. By 18, she was ready to experience life on her own terms. First one in her family to attend college. After college, her focus and determination earned her a spot working at Paramount Studios, on the #1 show in television, "Cheers". At 29, Renee gave entrepreneurship a go and began a Biomedical engineering business out of her garage. Twenty years later, that risky venture grew into 8,000 square feet of success. She broke the cycle of poverty that plagued her family for generations. Recently, Renee turned fifty, filed for divorce (he declared WAR), and trudged through a debilitating nervous breakdown. Through therapy and writing, she reclaimed her sanity. Sold her half of the business to the ex, and now she has clarity and choices. Renee is personally and financially independent. With her new found freedom, she chooses to write in a sincere effort to reconcile her past with her present. Hopefully, through this cathartic process, the second half of her life will be led by her soul's desire, rather than by the fears and doubts of her first half. Currently, she lives in South Orange County with her teenage son and daughter, and her high maintenance yet lovable dog, Joe. Soon to be an empty nester, she plans to downsize the big house in the OC bubble, for a bigger life in the real world. Her days are spent gently launching her almost grown children into adulthood, and passionately penning her memoir. In the mean time, you can find her essays on pain, positivity, and empowerment at: onedropofgrace.blogspot.com

A Mother’s Lessons Lead to Her Final Gift

Mary Novaria

“I want to die.” It was hard to hear when my mother first said the words to me over the phone, but I understood why she felt that way. Besides robbing her of memory, that thief dementia had stolen my mom’s independence, dignity and ability to have an adult conversation. Read more

Mary Novaria

Mary Novaria's is a two-time Writer's Digest award winner whose work has been featured in Oprah Daily, Washington Post, Spirituality & Health, Cosmopolitan, Feminine Collective, FF2 Media, HuffPost, and elsewhere. She and her husband are empty nesters who live in the mountains of Colorado with their rescue dog, Rooney. She is currently working on a novel.

47 Trips Around the Sun

Julie Anderson

One of the signs of passing youth is the birth of a sense of fellowship with other human beings as we take our place among them. -Virginia Woolf On January 16th, I will be celebrating another trip around the sun. I never dreamed I would pass over onto the other Read more

Julie Anderson

Julie Anderson is the Creator and Publisher of Feminine Collective. Julie was inspired to create this safe place for women to share their secrets, desires, triumphs and pain as the antithesis of what mainstream media offers women today. In her column Pursuit of Perfection, she explores the importance of rectifying the balance of inner and outer beauty through essays, poems and articles on self-esteem, shame, family, and self- acceptance.

Last Prayer

Julie Anderson

It is an inconvenient time, swaddled tightly with life’s circumference. Enmeshed with an array of emotions, responsibilities. I am culpable for everyone. I am liable to provide the means to fulfill their urgent desire to be happy. I am a one stop shop. As my body matures, my vanity has Read more

Julie Anderson

Julie Anderson is the Creator and Publisher of Feminine Collective. Julie was inspired to create this safe place for women to share their secrets, desires, triumphs and pain as the antithesis of what mainstream media offers women today. In her column Pursuit of Perfection, she explores the importance of rectifying the balance of inner and outer beauty through essays, poems and articles on self-esteem, shame, family, and self- acceptance.

I Spoke to the Mountain

Jennifer Lauren Adams

I spoke to the mountain and valleys to ask, do you even know my name or remember my past? I spoke to the mountain to simply confide, all the insecurities and sorrow I continue to hide. I spoke to the mountain and pledged my life’s key, and the mountain replied, Read more

Jennifer Lauren Adams

Jennifer Lauren Adams is an aspiring 26-year-old creative writer from Dallas, TX. She strives to promote healing and enlightenment by sharing her gift of writing with the world. Look for more projects from this southern belle in the next few months!. Inspirational articles, poetry, thoughts of the day and e-books will be available online for purchase Fall 2016!