Joan Eastman was born like any other. However, her life would prove to be a life of great pain. She endured tests, trials and tribulations that at first she couldn’t begin to understand. Feeling she had been dealt a wicked hand by the “powers that be”, she spiraled into despair and recklessness as she grew up. She became a victim of agonizing circumstances and self-hatred.

However, as the years progressed, she became aware of a greater perspective and began to awaken to it. She began to understand that nothing is hopeless; that with a changed perspective and increased understanding, there is definitely hope in every situation, no matter how difficult. And there is power for every person to achieve their dreams, if they only believe that it exists and persist in finding it.

This story speaks of Joan’s gradual awakening. It speaks of the possibilities of the future and the fulfillment of dreams. And it speaks of jumping the hurdles in life without looking back, no matter how high those hurdles may be. Join Joan as she tells her story. Maybe you will even find pieces of your life in between the pages…

This earthly plane offers much for us to learn: happiness, wisdom, loss, heartbreak, and enlightenment. It is a Pandoras box of emotions, situations, opportunities, and failures, all wrapped into a package we call life. Nobody is immune, but everyone has the opportunity to grow tall or wither like a flowerin harsh light. Its completely up to us how we choose to respond. Finding Hope in the Darkness of Grief is a gleaning of insights from artist Diamante Lavender. For her, life has been a long, difficult road, but it has taught many poignant lessons.

Her poetry collection is an exploration of the human soul, a traversing of situations that life throws at us. Diamante has always been intrigued by the ability to overcome and move on to bigger and better things. She writes to encourage hope and possibility in those who read her stories. If she can help others heal, as she has, then Diamante’s work as an author and artist will have been well spent. She believes that everyone should try to leave a positive mark on the world, to make it a better place for all. Writing is the way that she is attempting to leave her mark one story at a time.

A raw collection of religious poetry and prose based on one Christian woman’s experiences of being abused, and how she healed herself with God’s love in order to move past the assaults.

In this rare collection of nonfiction Christian poetry and prose based on real life experiences, Diamante Lavendar, a victim of abuse, shows the reader the raw emotions of pain, hate, and denial that occur before a victim of abuse can find a way to heal from the pains of assault. Knowing herself the very difficult journey of being a victim, Diamante was abused as a child, and turned to alcohol and drugs to numb the pain. Many years later, she started to heal under God’s watchful eyes and was able to find love in her life again. She shares these truly inspiring, religious poems in the hopes that it may help other victims heal their hurts, as she did while writing the poetry collection.