Betty Jane Clem

Hope That Heals 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.