Are You Afraid of Blood?
H ere I sit, new home and new location and my heart drips blood. My arrival to this new place was not a wholly welcome one, yet, I think it was provisional at the same time. Here I hope to find more healing - some balm for my battered heart. It isn't what you would think it would be. It was not back-alley life that brought me here. I am a hometown, church-grown, people-pleasing girl, whose aspirations were to marry, be surrounded by her children, build up a piece of land and have people lovingly flowing in and out of a welcoming home, and be rooted - grounded - deeply, with her family and fellow believers in order to be a help. I didn't know how dark that place could be. I thought I was on track for my life until things started coming apart that I couldn't control. I grew up in a family desperately clinging to God's words to change the sins of the past. A homegrown congregation that my parents were dedicated to nurturing, even when it cost them more than they