Looking To “Turn Over a New Leaf” This Fall? You Can by Reading My Newest Non-Fiction Book “The Healing Swords of Love and Innocence.” Learn to Live in Fearlessness and Bliss…

Dedication

For all who strive to help suffering people throughout the world,
to make it a healthy, peaceful place in which to live and
by honoring our right to thrive in harmony
with all of earth’s creatures…

~

From the Author . . .
‘The Healing Swords of Love and Innocence’ is a book I wrote more than a decade ago, but one in which I still contemplate the words and wisdom therein. I have continued to revise it as I have continued to revise my own life. And yet, in a way, this book has taken on a life of its own beyond even my own thoughts and revisions in its own determination to express its unique spirit.

While some may profess that as adults we have lost our innocence, and with it, our ability to love in its purest form, I have come to realize that we never truly lose the essence of either within our soul and spirit. The profession of such a loss is actually an illusion, a fabrication that has been drummed into us once we reach adolescence, as it has through eons of history and religion, convincing us that true love and innocence is only a gift to be experienced by the very young.

Consider, for example, how we often hear in our youth,that once we become sexually active, we/have lost our innocence?

With our innocence now gone, what have we now become?

Can we ever attain innocence once again? Is the innocence that we thought we have lost still in our hearts?

When I was fifteen years old, my mother suffered from a mental breakdown. As a result, much of our home was destroyed. This was my childhood home, a place where I had felt love and protection. The destruction of my physical home also nearly destroyed my own mental well-being.

Imagine being taken to a police station as a teenagerwith your grandmother and twin sister sitting by your side, wondering if you were going to be sent away somewhere. Thankfully, my mother’s employer learned of our situation and stepped up, offering to place us under his protective care. Still, this terrifying experience affected me so deeply that I feared I would lose my mind. This fear turned into despair. I thought of ending my own life.

From my birth, I had been raised in the Roman Catholic Church. I had had nuns as teachers. My uncle was a priest. What saved my life was a painful decision that I decided to make. Perhaps a decision that no young girl should ever have to make. Yet the church assured me that I would be loved and protected by God if I chose to join a religious order. They in a sense, would become my new family. So, at age sixteen, I left my sister, grandmother, and mother to join them.

For the next twenty-one years of my life I served God as a nun. It was a good life and I learned much about prayer and contemplation. Yet, after spending two decades of my life in the convent, I found myself growing outside of the professed religious doctrine. It no longer fit who I had become.

Throughout my life, I have always been fascinated by swords and by the opulence of love. Into my thirties, I began to discover the Sword of Light, realizing all along that it had been hidden inside me just waiting to shine. I was now ready and eager to leave the contemplative life so that I could begin a new life in the world.

Yet, as I left, I kept the monastic wisdom that I had acquired, as well the valuable experiences from the fruitful work I did as a counselor. Later on, I became a writer, and then met my husband and became a wife. Throughout our lives, we will experience love and we will experience innocence. For love and innocence are not just for the young. Sometimes love and innocence will be apparent to us, yet oftentimes, love and innocence may hide in the shadows.

Love and innocence may also be challenged when we choose to embrace the crosses that life brings us to bear. Yet, with the chalice of hope, we can diminish anger, fear, and hopelessness. Throughout this book I have used symbols which represent what I have experienced in my own life as a contemplative nun: veils, swords, kingdoms, wise elders, healers, priests, and priestesses, chalices, and the Holy Cross. viii ‘The Healing Swords of Love and Innocence.’

From the Author ix Love and innocence are with us during every moment of our lives, always urging us to become more aware. Throughout our lives, we may don many veils and we may carry many swords. Yet we will also find those who will bring us back to the light, whether they be wise elders, healers, or high priests or priestesses.

We will always find consolation in the Holy Cross, which offers us compassion, and where we will receive grace and abundance which resides in our visions, dreams, prayers, and moments of silence.

During the course of your life journey, it is my sincere hope that you will discover that ultimately love is all that matters.

~Elizabeth Upton

As a special treat for my friends, readers, and new visitors, my Kindle of “The Healing Swords of Love and Innocence: Be Brave Be Bold This Is Your Moment” is now on sale on Amazon Kindle!

Now only $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/Healing-Swords-Love-Innocence-Moment-ebook/dp/B0C5GJ7X99/ and it is also within Kindle Unlimited to read free and comes in paperback too.

With the fall season approaching, my book can help you with turning over that new leaf and gain more happiness and bliss in your life!

Let’s Connect!  Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, Amazon, Linkedin!