Excerpt from The Passing Light by Maryann and her sister
http://www.pdbookstore.com/comfiles/pages/Pasda.shtml
Dedicated to those who believe that poverty can be and shall be
crushed by the Glory of God and those who love. The Passing Light is
Book One of our Pennsylvania Voices Transforming Poverty Series. Multigenerational, multicultural, our
book is themed with a myriad of characters who represent poverty in her
dimensional weave of sorrow that spans four centuries.
The Irish, Jonathan and his sister Joan who flee Ireland during the Potato
Famine build a new life in American with the aid of Native Americans, African
Americans, Latinos, Latinas, and other immigrants. Set in the twenty first
century and told by a Polish Jewish Archeologist who finds a diary, The Passing
Light tells the story of the 18th 19th and 20th
century resilience, courage and faith. When Jonathan becomes blind, he learns
to live again with the help of his companion dog, with the miracle of the first
service dog as the guide to the human master. Eventually, Jonathan marries but
his sister Joan dies in childbirth. As the baby grows, Lily as the adopted
daughter of Jonathan will marry a former slave. Harshly bruised by the loss of
his real family, through marriage to a white woman, an African American former
slave heals a community and the immigrants who dwell with fear of poverty by
his generosity and community spirit. We balance
the message with the action and develop the semi-autobiographical story teller
character Margaret through her creation of secondary characters to represent
other immigrants.
Social justice as a paradigm for the novel resounds with tension and resolution
dependent upon the silent resilience of the individual. Equally, hopes and
dreams of those who came to American save her from corruption and disruption by
evil forces of humans who only seek materialism. But with the understanding of the pain of poverty and the
building of community sharing and compassion, the face of poverty is finally
crushed by the love of members of communities who believe that life is life,
love is all that truly exists, and service to others is the answer to life on
earth. Love is the center of existence.
Experience the beautiful Pennsylvania landscape, the wonder of spiritual growth
and the peaceful touch of animals while you learn about the quest for God
through the stories of immigrants who love family and life itself. A love
story, an historical memoir, and a inspirational spiritual tale, a journey that
reveals in the simple essence of the human condition, our work transcends time
to reach our audience through a unique blend of nature and human kindnesses
based on remembrances memories, reference for the natural world and spiritual
peace.
Ultimately, The Passing Light, our reaching to the reader for
compassionate healing, offers grief therapy as we journey with Jonathan through
his life goal of saving his sister Joan then losing her as she dies in
childbirth, to raising Joan’s child Lily with newfound renewed hope and peace
as he progresses through the grief stages with guidance from the Holy
Spirit. In selected areas of
chapter entitled with character names and dates of birth and death, we move away from the use of plot and structure to employ
stream-of-consciousness to emphasize the psychological aspects of our
characters.
We graciously thank
all our mentors, friends, and students who have journeyed with us to find the
dream of healing. We also thank our publisher who presents this work to
humanity and helps us share our voices.
We are fiction
writers who see beyond the ordinary to make the extraordinary and invite our
readers to experience the short fiction novella in a different light: as a
healing endeavor and a lesson in love. Rooted in our love for prayer, the
novella exists as a short writing effort rooted in our love for books coupled
with the common story telling troupe which invites invention and structure. We
create a novel for all ages but particularly for the youth of a global society
where the search for love is the greatest quest of all. A work of fiction, and a testimonial to
the goodness and healing of God, we find forgiveness in the rivers of the state
of Pennsylvania and memories that fill us with gentleness. Through a fiction story,
we show the love of God through characters who exemplify strengths.
In 2000, when our
Father’s illness forced relocation to a nursing home, Patti and Maryann turned
to prayer. Then, Patti was diagnosed with cancer. “I survive the cancer treatments through prayer, painting
and writing. We are Christian Authors who praise God for the gifts of writing
and painting.” Patti Pasda
We care for the hungry, homeless or the lonely and suggest that our
work may be for all humanity.
We suggest that all our readers own joyous days within the situations today
while reading and hope our readers will seek out gifts of healing inherent in
the myth we present. How did we
begin our journeys for life through the creative process to heal daily, weekly,
yearly, and to continue to be well? Our first writing experiences were in a
kitchen in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, our hometown. We remember using pen and
paper to create stories. Well, those days, at the age of two and nine, we
recall the beginning of artistic journeys that led us to awakenings that we
could hardly imagine. Now we write
and cherish friendships with the great gifts of God, faith, hope, charity,
love, peace, joy, humility, the traits embodied in Jonathan and Daighre, translating
the wonder of story into a meaning that bridges human suffering into compassion
by sharing share food with those who hunger and those who also thirst for love.
Prologue
To show varied styles of thought in writing, italics represent the inner
consciousness of the creator of The Passing Light, Margaret, who is a semi-autobiographical
representation of the authors.
Epic poetry, the framework of our novel, remains the only true form of
language that can accurately explain the bombardment that we experienced in the
21st century with illness, changes and loss of loved ones as well as
economic strife that often scared us into the inability to cope. We faced many
challenges, including our father’s illness and Patti’s diagnosis of
cancer. Blessed by faith to
continue life, Patti turned to writing to approach treatments and setbacks as
well as triumphs with the creative process. It is now December 2009. Five years
have passed since we started to write our series called Pennsylvania Voices.
The Passing Light is the book of hope. Readers experience a story, a journey, a
way to heal through storytelling techniques of literary thought that take us
away from the reality of suffering into the light of God’s grace and love as we
noticed in our love of history that God saved others just like us but in
different times but in our very home town. When we join to write, the magic
process of sisterhood, love and cherishing each others’ gifts and the need to
write to continue to develop positive visions of hope arise. Writing, an art,
is a necessary endeavor natural for the growth of human intelligence. Our book
is based on a series of years of tragedy and hope. Two sisters, writers,
artists and master teachers, as the 21st century dawned and 9/11
occurred, we experienced circumstances that challenged and tested our faith and
inner strength. Maryann was diagnosed with lupus; Patti learned that she had
cancer; Dad and Mom died. As the
economic stature of America changed our futures seemed dim. Our seashore house
was sold; our business closed. Patti became poor. Maryann served in a local soup
kitchen.
Our family of four disintegrated in what seemed like a flash of light that
forever took away what we knew, the house, the traditions, the love? No. Not
the love. That remains in our hearts as we write a novel that depicts our 21st
century struggles through the eyes of a ghost who inhabits our Bethlehem
apartment. We speak through our narrator who is a 21st century woman
named Margaret. We also tell a
tale of human strife and persistence based on our visions of history. Writing
gives us courage and builds back brain neurons as well. When tragedy strikes,
the human mind suffers but with faith in God and the gift of writing, we live
on. We gained hope through those tragic years as we saw possibilities in loss
and lack of funds to feed our family of pets. Patti created a small personal
service dog organization to help her with her cancer related symptoms. Dogs can
help those who are cancer survivors with weakened brain function due to
chemotherapy, memory loss and slower moving bodies. We wanted to share our story of hope with global readers of
all nations.
The Passing Light is the voice for poverty in the 21st
century. We represent the poor as we are children of the parents who struggled
with 20th century failures and 19th century political
turmoil that lead to the famine.
We particularly reflect and echo the poor who experienced potato and
bread famines. Our hope is that our readers envision a new future with equal
food and dignity for all humans.
Margaret Cummins, a semi-autobiographical representation of the authors,
archaeologist, of the 21st century, finds a diary by Daighre of the 20th century. He
speaks as the voice of the authors when she describes her inner pain and
triumph representative of the human speaking talent. Her character acts as a
bridge from the past to the future.
Her imagination is in her own language pattern, so she thinks in English
but please translate the language into that of whom ever is speaking by
listening to the soft quiet touch of human kindness evident in Margaret’s
writing. We are of course creating a fiction work that is a part of our own
healing.
Margaret is the voice of the dual authors’ consciousness, as both authors
experienced poverty, abuse and illness in the 20th century of
materialism post World War II Industrial Era, but found healing through faith
of human compassion non-religious yet like all religions of the world with a
very spiritual tone and theme, a reaching to the Almighty, in the 21st
Century.
A testimonial, a fictional novel about social justice and a self help book
about healing, The Passing Light employs plot, characterization,
historical memoir about fictional places that are visions of imagination, plus
stream-of-consciousness of inner voices based on truth which can heal. Read the
book to remember that your own experiences may be hard. You may know tribulations, but you can
ask for forgiveness and peace through God. In what ever way you pray, reach out
to the God you know in the silence of the night or the light of the day or the
Goodness you see in others. We especially acknowledge the volunteers of soup
kitchen’s of the world who provide food and shelter for those who are in need.
In you we see God. Thank you.
overcoming poverty by Maryann DiEdwardo
poverty
can be and shall be crushed
by the Glory of God and those who love.
Framed by an epic poem, our novel
The Passing Light is based
on our struggles as Judeo-Christian
Women who survived
the brutal violence akin
to domestic strife of the twentieth
century, a heritage of Judiasm
that was hidden for many years,
and a life in Christ that they
accept and lead as attending
members of
Trinity Episcopal Church
in Bethlehem
where they help feed the poor.
Writers Maryann and Patti
are authors who create a
main character based
on a spirit they know
dwells in their old art studio.
Battling the natural world
of early America as an
immigrant from Ireland,
a crusader for Christ, a
Christian man who lives
every day for God,
on a quest to live as a
free man in a different
land, Jonathan
endures the loss of his
parents due to the
potato famine in Ireland
during his early years,
the immigration to
America with an abusive uncle,
escaping to freedom
while protecting his only living relative,
his sister Joan,
her ultimate death in childbirth,
his blindness and old age
with his dog, his lovely wife
Daighre and adopted African
American son Elon by his side
The purpose of the poem
is to reveal the narrative
events of The Passing Light,
a novel about faith
and hope during despair
based on the survival for
life by authors as
they find ways to
fight abuse in the
20th century and Maryann’s
chronic illness called lupus
and Patti’s cancer in the 21st century.
The action of the poem
symbolizes human struggles
spanning three centuries to
communicate the
hopes of the past that
inspire those of us who are
today living during economic hardships.
The Muse of Calliope
illustrates the pain and
sorrow of Jonathan
as he lost Joan to an early
death but bears the pain
only to become blind due
to starvation when
he was a child in
Ireland during the
Potato Famine of the 19th century.
Eighteen Forty-five, cries of fear of death
Real loss of life and loved ones as we lost
our potato crop and kin, starvation
came by day and night. Ireland lost one
million of us. Famine did not care who we were.
The fire held her hand tightly;
Guardian angels brought her light,
And made her future days bright ‘til
Her body failed to breathe during
The childbirth that she prayed for but
Such woes grieve Jonathan; his sword
Died with Joan on a blissful day
yet the trees sway and the wind blows
She dies while the wind blows softly
Her death brings the ancestors
Who cry as well
We cry for all our loved ones
Death brings life again as renewed
spirits walk the earth
Jonathan’s eyes stop working
His strife will end with death as well
But animals prevail on the earth as friends
of humans who care
Deeply and who take care for the world
poverty
can be and shall be crushed
by the Glory of God and those who love.
The Irish, Jonathan and his sister Joan
who flee Ireland during the Potato Famine
build a new life in America
with the aid of Native Americans,
African Americans, Latinos, Latinas,
and other immigrants.
Set in the twenty first century
and told by a Polish Jewish Archeologist
who finds a diary,
The Passing Light tells the story of the 18th 19th and 20th
century resilience, courage and faith.
When Jonathan becomes blind,
he learns to live again with the help of his companion dog,
with the miracle of the first service dog as the
guide to the human master.
Eventually, Jonathan marries but his sister
Joan dies in childbirth. As the baby grows,
Lily as the adopted daughter of Jonathan will marry a former slave.
Harshly bruised by the loss of his real family,
through marriage to a white woman,
an African American former slave heals a community
and the immigrants who dwell with fear of poverty
by his generosity and community spirit.
poverty
can be and shall be crushed
by the Glory of God and those who love.
Hear the sound of the whistle
as the train passes by with
Social justice as a paradigm
for the novel resounds
with tension and resolution dependent
upon the silent resilience of the individual.
Equally, hopes and dreams of those
who came to American save her from
corruption and disruption
by evil forces of humans
who only seek materialism.
But with the understanding of the pain
of poverty and the building of
community sharing and compassion,
the face of poverty is finally crushed
by the love of members of communities
who believe that life is life,
love is all that truly exists,
and service to others is the answer to life on earth.
Love is the center of existence.
Experience the beautiful Pennsylvania landscape,
the wonder of spiritual growth
and the peaceful touch of animals
while you learn about the quest for God
through the stories of immigrants
who love family and life itself.
A love story, an historical memoir,
and a inspirational spiritual tale,
a journey that reveals in the simple
essence of the human condition,
our work transcends time to reach
our audience through
a unique blend of nature and
human kindnesses based on
remembrances memories,
reference for the natural world
and spiritual peace.
poverty
can be and shall be crushed
by the Glory of God and those who love.
Ultimately, The Passing Light,
our reaching to the reader
for compassionate healing,
offers grief therapy as we
journey with Jonathan
through his life goal of
saving his sister Joan
then losing her as she
dies in childbirth,
to raising Joan’s child Lily
with newfound
renewed hope
and peace as
he progresses
through the grief stages
with guidance from the Holy Spirit.
In selected areas of chapter
entitled with character
names and dates of birth and death,
we move away from the
use of plot and structure to employ
stream-of-consciousness
to emphasize the psychological
aspects of our characters.
I am the story teller of this chaptered novel. But my tale is also
about my twenty-first century struggles with a life laden with miseries and
joys as well. My voice is within each character, but I feel most akin to
Daighre, the woman who wrote the journal from long ago. I was born in
Pennsylvania, in a small town some miles beyond Philadelphia. I am of Judeo
Christian birth, the child who experienced the second world war as a memory
that my father held in his troubled mind due to his prisoner of war experience
and his marriage to a mentally ill woman.
My mother sheltered me from life as much as she could to hide her illness as an
only child, I came to love her illness as my illness, and I will always
treasure the years I tried to save her as she had fits of anger that almost
killed her. But during her eighty years on the earth, she had a good life
because I gave up any joys that others desired for me such as marriage and
children and family to care for her
Dream of love. I cannot change the upbringing I experience or the pain from
loss of the mother I loved no matter what. I cherished her. She lay in a bed most of her life and I
surrounded her with my life, a treasure to me. Now, she has passed away, I look for light everywhere to
share her peace that I feel she has gained through death to a new life with
Goodness.
Rivers. Here is Philadelphia, the city where I believe the thought of
writing life, the essence of the ability to tell an epic, originates, with
Delaware river, a majesty. To the east and north the Lehigh and Susquehanna
rivers that powerfully command the land and flood or dry as the earth desires. But rivers hold truths that show breath
and calm and air as the truths of being, of God, of simply life. Thrust between his remembrances of his beloved sister and
his lover, Jonathan strives to make his way in a small Pennsylvania town during
the mid 20th century during the industrial boom. A light in my
apartment, the image of the character, reveals the story I tell. His ghost
appears as a dim light.
Nature passes by us through portals of love that diminish
if we are angry or scared. Death is not an end but life starts anew by the
heart memory. As you read, imagine your own life as a passing of light daily.
There is no yesterday or tomorrow.
Just today exists. Time does not exist. See hope: light surrounds us.
Trees contain memories; nature is the passage. Rivers speak; angels exist.
Recall stories daily to relieve and recreate. Writing is about nature, observe
your surroundings, see light, see angels, who guide us. Your relatives are
images of light that carry you through life. In conversations, notice how
others remember stories told by relatives that have either confused or
inspired. We carry ALL the memories of our ancestors. Form the shape of your memory by
thinking differently about a sad experience. There is joy in all of life, even the saddest part. You form
the results of the content of your life story. I select to recall my Mother as
an angel who was ill to keep me from the hurtful imaginings of the darker side
of life. If she had been perfect,
I would not be able to sense the truths of life that I create within Jonathan,
Daighre, Joan and Quin. See those who surround you as dreams of hope. Nature
shows us light. Look between
clouds, rivers, and leaves to seek possibilities that your life is just as it
should be. Your struggle is the way.
Stay home to learn about yourself. Visions set in prayer of any type heal you
as you journal or think of your life as a collage of representations or
metaphors just like I portray my imaginary world in The Passing Light.
My writing helps me remember with fondness. Yet, I am troubled as I have nightmares about my mother, and the dreams do to stop. But through the inner peace that I believe comes from God, I can watch myself float, grieve and despair. I am convinced that these events are important as they make me who I am. My memories form me and my reactions to the pains I recall are a part of me. Some days I shake when I think that my life that may have been altered by the fact that I lived with a person who was mentally ill. Although I am fine, I have scars that have formed in my inner mind. Through God, I learn to accept my horrible memories and to fight the deterioration of my spirit that they cause. If I pray to God for guidance all day, I can discontinue my frightful memories and be at a peaceful spot to breathe and to live as myself. I cannot rest when I live in the past. Writing about others who also have suffered and who have to deal with the death of loved ones or the death of aspects of the personal self due to control or mental illness or strife such as poverty, I cope, I survive and I realize that life is life and I am still me. All the parts of me represent who I am today. I can love myself as a survivor of a difficult childhood, an abusive childhood, yet I can rise above the memories into a newness and a view that my pain and knowledge through God can heal. Without God I am nothing. The Passing Light
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