Pain Mixed With Purpose
By Dr. Marcia
“Life is a mysterious mix of beautiful and painful experiences. No one can predict how it will unfold and we don’t always understand why it unfolds the way it does.” The words of Akirah Robinson rang through my head, and I read them repeatedly. The months April, May, and June though the period started off calmly and happily were filled with mixed emotions and yes mysterious happenings. I had decided to visit Jamaica during my Spring Break to do what I called a mini launch, but it turned out to be greater than that. Few hours after I arrived there, I was able to read a portion of my book that I had dedicated to one of the persons, I had written about. So exciting! She was pleasantly surprised and remarked, “This is such 
a pleasure, and I am getting goosebumps, just knowing that you thought of me.” The joy knowing that I was able to show how she impacted my life was overwhelming. Little did I know that would be the last time I saw her – she died a week and a half after that! I was devasted yet was comforted by the fact that she knew how much she impacted my life. I had read to her – unbelievable of the timing.
Another fantastic experience was that I was interviewed by a local (Jamaican) television station and got some more networking regarding my newly published book. I was also interviewed by a local radio station and during the interview I was asked who influenced me into being a teacher and I mentioned the teacher/professor from the first college I attended. Shortly after the interview, a listener called the producer to give her information about the teacher, information included that she was 102. How remarkable is that? I didn’t even know that she was still alive. I immediately made plans to visit her in July. Only that was not to be, a month after I had gotten word that she was alive, I discovered via YouTube, that her funeral was literally the day before I opened my YouTube app! Here we go again, more devastation! I was now questioning everything and wondering what was going on. I decided to watch the YouTube video a few days after and was pleasantly surprised to find out that during the reading the remembrance, the older gentleman (my teacher’s/professor’s cousin) mentioned that he had heard my interview on the radio station, called the radio station to give them the professor’s information. So again, I realized that my “mini launch” was not mini at all! It was ordained! How many of us still marginalize our experiences instead of turning the events into learning experiences and are simply grateful for them. I am learning to do so!
With the publication of my book, I have had some interesting experiences, some of them sad but overall, they seemed to have been waiting for the book to be published so the book can be highlighted and exposed. There are lives that have been touched by simply reading it and based on the reviews on the various platforms that it is being sold and the personal ones that I have gotten I feel certain that God made it published in His Perfect Time.
