Hope That Heals: Reflections on a Life Journey

By Betty Jane Clem

Hope That Heals: Reflections on a Life Journey is the author’s first published work. After six decades of writing in diaries and journals, Ms. Clem has selected a group of poems that she extracted from those records. The collection includes observations from eight aspects of life, which, together, focus on the place of hope in human health and healing.
Vacations spent near the oceans, bird watching in various landscapes and waterscapes, living with two beagles, probing for answers to personal questions and challenges, learning to relate to people, studying and making music, and wrestling with a lifelong call to serve God in word and deed are among the circumstances from which the author’s poems arise.
This wide range of thought covers years when Ms. Clem found verbal expression more difficult than writing. After developing verbal communication skills, the later work evolved into writing at a new level. The development of freedom in maturing thought and speech gave rise to deeper and more complex writing.
She has long dreamed of sharing her observations and discoveries, in the hope that they will be helpful to others, perhaps even encouraging them to share their own.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Nov 3, 2020
• ISBN: 9781664138667

Betty Jane Clem

When Betty Jane Clem began this project, she thought of her poem collection as reflections on the people, places, events, and inner development one experiences through life. Her experiences centered on mental, emotional, and spiritual development. Writing enabled her to integrate what impressed and influenced her. She believes this kind of journey has value for others. This brief volume fulfills her dream to share her progress toward wholeness. Ms. Clem spent her youth in Staunton, Virginia, where she enjoyed the close family atmosphere. She received a BA degree in English from Radford University, and a master of divinity degree in theology from United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio. She spent twenty years in ministry with the United Methodist Churches in Ohio and Virginia. She changed employment when her emotional health was impacted by life events. She spent the following twenty years on the national staff of the American Red Cross, working with and for the people that make our world diverse. Betty Jane is in the seventh decade of her life and says she has learned as much from writing about life as she has from living it. In retirement, she fills her days observing the world around her, creating word pictures of what she learns, and enjoying music, gardening, and reading. And yes! She is a dog person.

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Copyright © 2020 by Betty Jane Clem.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 10/29/2020

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Contents

Abstract

Acknowledgments

Set 1 SING A NEW SONG

Birds’ Song

Angel Song

Infant Song

Bells’ Song

Unfinished Symphonies

Set 2 IN THE GARDEN

Rooted

Rooted [continued]

The Heart Tree

Autumn in Mountain Meadows

The Gardeners

The Gardeners [continued]

Ebby’s Adventure

Ode to a Beagle

Set 3 SELF-REVELATION

A Block of Wood

What Matters

Knowing

The Listener

The Listener [continued]

Love Does a Lot of Waiting

Tears Flow

Confrontation

Friends

Commitments

New Friend

Child Teacher

Recess

A Cleansing

Early Morning

First Guest Today

Forging Ahead

Survival Outside the Fold

Set 4 TO THE SEA

A Crane or A Crane?

Ocean’s Sway

Rough Seas and High Winds

Rough Seas and High Winds [continued]

Changing Course

Rehoboth

Easter Eve

Tarpon Springs, Florida

Reflections on The Tidal Basin

Set 5 FOR THE FUN OF IT

The Bottom Line

Dreams Can Come True

The Blue Heron

Pelicans in Flight

Oops!

Oops!, [continued]

Set 6 SPIRITUAL STEPPING-STONES

Simplicity Beyond Sophistication,

Ministerial Call

Unity through Hospitality

Unity through Hospitality [continued]

Tree of Life

Ode to a Teacher

Set 7 ODDS AND ENDS

Fireflies

Team of Eight

Hands

Sunrise

Shaken Up

Shaken Up (continued)

Set 8 HEROES

Life in America: Before and After 911

Life in America: Before and After 911

Abandonment

Mr. Lincoln

Vietnam Veterans Memorial

David and Goliath

Prayer of an Itinerant Preacher

Epilogue

Research Bibliography

Historical Influence in Poetry’s Development

Abstract

Hope that Heals: Reflections on a Life Journey is the first volume of poetry published by this writer. The contents include a variety of poems originally written contemporaneously to the poet’s life, from age nine to the present. Subjects focus on people, travels, current issues of the period, and thoughts the writer recorded as reminders of her experiences. Looking back on years of diaries and journals, the author has selected entries featuring the theme of hope and healing revealed during times of joy, pain, discovery, challenge, and growth shared with family and friends.

Acknowledgments

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