The poems speak my language

by Beverly Gray

I have Retinitis Pigmentosa. This is a degenerative, hereditary disease of the eye. There is gradual loss of vision often progressing to total blindness. Mine is the most progressed, and I can see only light and dark.

It has been a journey of loss, times of anger and frustration, grief and tears, joy and laughter. My sister gave me a CD from Janelle's Seasons of Solace poetry reading. I cried and related. Janelle's honesty and insight, depth and searching spoke to me deeply. I kept wishing I could "see" the photos that went with each poem.

I am thankful for Janelle's sharing her heart and her pain, her new understanding of life and God and the Christian journey here on earth. It IS so different from the way it is portrayed by so many church groups. I have sought to be faithful. I shouldn't be blind then, right? Well-meaning people have approached me with such sentiments. "Why don't you ask to be healed?" they ask, implying the lack of faith.... But what about the beauty through pain that Janelle expresses in these poems? When I try to explain the peace of being where God has me....sometimes it feels like I am speaking a foreign language. These poems spoke my language.