The Waiting — Elizabeth Burgess

I had a dream. It was a perfect winter day with a deep blue azure sky. Ice and snow covered the Earth sparkling in drifts of purity. In my vision there was no death, illness, pollution or sin. When I awoke, I found myself in a psychiatric hospital facing a devastating diagnosis. I did not know if I could ever control my thoughts and psychotic breaks in order to live a normal life. With the help of a beloved counselor and a friend, I learned to redefine what others saw as an illness, as a gift that needed to be managed. I began to believe what I experienced in my manic thoughts was normal; I just needed to learn to navigate between two worlds of consciousness and reality. Inspired by my manic dream of peace on Earth, I began to build my life based on God and to learn to shift realities. I learned only through the presence of God within us can we heal ourselves and Earth. This is a collection of essays written after a twenty-five