ABOUT THE AUTHOR…Elizabeth Walker is the author of the memoir, The Tablet of My Heart. You can visit her website at www.tabletofmyheart.net. To read an extended bio, click here!
ABOUT THE BOOK…The world turns upside down for a young girl when her father begins a fatal battle with the merciless affliction cancer. Before his illness finishes it’s devastating rampage through her adolescence, she is confronted by a new demon. She falls victim, by the hands of a trusted adult, to sexual abuse. The devastation of these events causes her to question God’s roll in her life, and whether He ever loved her at all. The Tablet of My Heart is a collection of Poetry from the journal of that young girl. It is narrated by the author of the journal herself, who paints a portrait of words illustrating her emotional journey from hopelessness to healing. It is dedicated to victims of abuse; to bring to them the realization of hope that there is a light at the end of the silence.
AUTHOR GUEST POST…Love by Elizabeth Walker…The beautiful thing about a book is that when you curl up next to it, the commitment is brief but fulfilling! It takes so little out of you. Many of them hang on to you all the way until the end, and most times when it ends – you’re ready for it. You may not necessarily be happy about it, but you’re ready for it. The ghosts it stirs in your heart linger just long enough to make sure you don’t forget, but not so long that you hate to remember. I love to read. I have found myself head over heels with more books than I can count. I feel the same tingle and excitement about writing. It soothes me when I ache, it warms me when the wind blows and it amuses me when my heart is giddy. I think I never found a relationship that required so little of me – and so much of me all at the same time. I first discovered the impace that the joy of reading had on me when I buried my nose in “where the Sidewalk Ends.” I love that book, and many Silverstien books, to this day. But you know, I’ll always have my favorite: LOVE (page 95) I do hope you steal a moment to read it. When I first read it I was about 11 and in a whirlwind of circumstances that were not fit for a nine year old – or an any-year-old for that matter, to sort through. I discovered I could lose the weight of the world in between the covers of books; those that I wrote in and those that I read in.
The poem “LOVE” by Shel Siverstien happened to me on a particularly difficult day. I was cutting myself, again, (long before cutting was cool, or even before there was a word for it) I just wanted to let the pain out. I sat in the elementary school library with my angry hands underneath the table, silently tearing the skin on my arm with a paper clip, and flipping through the pages of “Where the Sidewalk Ends”, mostly to appear to be reading so that no one would approach me. I’m not sure if it is ok to quote the poem that found me, in its entirety, so instead I will give you the gist:
Love was four characters and three failed to show, but still….there was one. There was a little piece of love because of the one who held tight to his share.
I toyed with that for a moment; there was a little piece of love if I held tight to my share. I don’t remember putting down my little tool. I don’t remember deciding not to punish myself deeper this time around. What I do remember is moving on, purposefully, to page 96, 97, 98…… And I remember closing the book when the bell rang and realizing that because of that poem taking my focus off of pain and shifting it from what I had lost – to what I had left, This time I hadn’t even made myself bleed. I suppose there is more than just one beautiful thing about books. I guess that’s why so many of us fall in love so often when we read. Thanks for letting me share!
THANK YOU ELIZABETH FOR STOPPING BY THE BOOK FAERY REVIEWS!!
LOOK FOR MY REVIEW OF THE TABLET OF MY HEART VERY SOON.
