Honoring Different Perceptions of Born To Return The Gift

After completely reading my debut novel again, in light of the constructive criticism received, the following revisions have been made to 'Born To Return The Gift.

I realize that my effort to project the racing thoughts of the protagonist through the third person pov, as if the condition was contagious, was evidently a mistake in judgment.  Punctuation has been added to change the pace.  The paragraphs of explicit sex have been eliminated to leave it to the reader's imagination, realizing for this piece of work, less is more.  Also, there are some areas which will be expanded upon briefly, or rewritten for clarification.

I sincerely thank each reviewer, (except one who said the book was a joke-lol), for their insightful comments.  Each has helped me improve on what I believe is definitely worthwhile reading. With the revised version I will now have others to acknowledge.

Considerable thought has been given to the idea of changing the cover, but I've decided to let it stand as is.  I understand that some may perceive the art to erroneously lead one to believe the book belongs in the horror genre, but it is definitely a faith based novel.  The abstract of God's hands reaching to restore hope to the woman who has been through the 'fire', and her nudity is a symbolization of total surrender to depict the baring of her soul. There is a demonic element in the story, but the protagonist had to be forced to acknowledge her dark side in order to appreciate the light. Light obliterates darkness and no matter how much knowledge we acquire through psychology, or any other science, NOTHING precludes the significance of God.

The revised book will be available in July. I hope many of you will consider giving it a read. For all those of you who will, I thank you for supporting my effort to demonstrate a facet of life and the pitfalls that face many of us in one way or another.

The Jungarian Psycology behind 'Born To Return The Gift'

"Life and sacrifice go together."
Defining moments:
 
"Creative life is the soul's food and water. Starvation of the soul - trapped - especially if you have the desire and drive to create - lured or pushed into too-small lives - leaving you hungry for something soulful. Self-preservation: ID leg traps, cages, and poisoned bait. Instinct - layer of psyche where biology and spirit might touch. Joy - Stretching ones best self - maybe gracefully, maybe not - but succeeding in creating something, the someone, the art, the battle, the moment - her life a woman's natural and instinctive state of being."

"A woman's creative and passionate nature is at risk if she cannot hold on to her sources of growth and joy. When women are relegated to moods, mannerisms and contour that conform to a single ideal of beauty and behavior, they are 'captured' in both body and soul and are no longer free."

"Creative instinct in particular is as much of lyrical language of the self as is the symbolization of dreams, learned helplessness influences women to stay with drunken mates the normalizing of the abnormal even when there is clear evidence that it is to one's own detriment to do so applies to all battering of the physical, emotional, creative, spiritual, and instinctive natures."

"When a woman has gone without her cycles or creative needs for long periods of time, she begins a rampage of you name it - alcohol, drugs, anger, spirituality, oppression of others, promiscuity, pregnancy, study, creation, control, education, orderliness, body fitness, junk food, to name a few areas of common excess.  When women do this, they are compensating for the loss of regular cycles of self-expression, soul-expression, and soul-satiation. Without a firm participation with the wild nature, a woman starves and falls into an obsession of  'feel betters', 'leave me alones', and 'love me please'. It's a famine of the soul that makes a woman choose things that are destructive and life threatening - hideously wasting her time and talents, or exposes her life to physical and psychological danger.

"The starving woman edures famine after famine. She may plan her escape, yet believe that the cost of fleeing is too high - too much libido, too much energy, and she may be ill-prepared educationally, economically, spiritually - loss of treasure (soul/self) and deep memory of famine may cause us to rationalize that excesses are desirable. Such relief and a pleasure to be able to enjoy sensation - any sensation - that is the trouble with famine. A woman in such a condition has inadvertently entered into the oven along with her handmade life. Her life becomes ashes."

"The vision a woman has for her own life can be decimated in the flames of someone else's jealousy or someone's plain-out destructiveness toward her.  Family, mentors, teachers, and friends are not suppose to be destructive if and when they feel envy, but some decidedly are, in both subtle and not so subtle ways. It is worse to stay where one does not belong at all than to wander about lost for a while and looking for the psychic and soulful kinship. It is never a mistake to search for what one requires. Surviving adversity - special and valuable wisdom. Don't waste time hating failure. Failure is a greater teacher than success. Listen, learn, and go on. Hitting bottom - while extremely painful - is also the sowing ground."

"Where there is injury, the soul flees. A long time must pass before such a soul will trust enough to return. The retrieval requires several ingredients - naked honesty, stamina, tenderness, sweetness, ventilation of rage and humor. Combined, these make a song that calls the soul back home. Survivorship leads to healing and thriving. We're limited in energy and power by remaining merely a survivor. Instead of the focus being on surviving, it should become a badge of honor and the focus put on healing so that one can thrive."

"Listen to the wild voice - the one that whispers, 'Stay here long enough to revive your hope, to drop your terminal cool, to give up defensive half-truths, to creep, carve, bash your way through, stay here long enough to make the finish line, it matters not how long it takes or in what style. There is something useful in this torque and tension.  Effect is similar to pure natural carbon under pressure producing diamonds - it leads eventually to a profound magnitude and clarity of psyche."

Although not sequential in the order of most excerpts, the content cited was taken from the book, 'Women Who Run With The Wolves', by Dr. Clarrissa Pinkola Estes. Undoubtedly, this book has had an indelible impact on the writing of 'Born To Return The Gift.'