Foreword
Most of us are lonely. We are alone in our pain. We don’t share the secrets of our life even with our best friend of the time. So we suffer in silence. We look for happiness in unfulfilling places, or we find pleasure in things that don’t really lead us to what we desire—peace. We are longing to be understood; we are longing to understand. We are lost in the pain of our abuse, incest, and neglect. Some of us are so lost that we don’t even know that we are lost. Some of us do all the right things trying to heal the pain, the memories, and our shame. We turn to God whether we know him or not and plead with Him to do something. As we scream to the heavens, most of us hear silence. We feel alone. We go to church; we leave lonely. We go to counseling; we are improved, but not healed. The peace that passes all understanding feels beyond our reach.

      Like a good friend, she speaks the truth gently and with love. You will begin to  trust what she says as her words begin to describe and comfort the most lonely parts of your being, the place of your unattended pain. Step by step you will be able to connect with yourself through the opening of your heart, your mind, and your spirit. As you begin to have mercy upon your unattended pain, the core of your loneliness is revealed. You have truly been lonely for love and healing. You have been longing for the questions to be answered: “Wherewere you, God? And where are you now?” With Linda, you can leave the shores of isolation and cross the bridge to healing through addressing the silence of the heavens, the pain of abuse, and the hurt within you. Linda has been there; she has felt the conflict between the reality of her own abuse and the pain of not seeing God. She has felt the sting of misappropriated scripturesand the abandonment of those who were supposed to nurture and protect her. You can be enlightened and healed no matter where you are on your own personal journey.

     Awareness is the key to healing. Repeated awareness is necessary for the process of recovery. The more clarity you have about the dynamics of abuse, connection with yourself, and the truth about God, the more aware you will be of your own place on the road to peace.

  This is the place where Linda meets you. As she welcomes you into her heart,she is ever aware of yours. Linda becomes a friend as she walks with you and has the conversation that no one else in the whole world has been willing or able to have. 

                                                               ~Renee Rowe, LMSW, ACSW

Foreword