Introduction

Welcome to the September 2010 issue of Touch: The Journal of Healing.

As each issue of the journal unfolds, we, the editors, poets, authors, artists, and readers, are given new insight into the Touch of humanity through the struggles and triumphs of the characters portrayed within these pages.  We realize the price they paid once we take a moment to reflect on their stories, and we recall moments from our own lives when we faced similar challenges.

Reflection, whether on ourselves or about another, permeates many of the pieces in this issue.  With great clarity, these works speak to the process of recognizing, accepting, working through, and going on in life after a debilitating, devastating event.  You will read of the struggles experienced by the characters, their family members and caregivers, as, together or alone, they face life-altering disease and loss, physical abuse, or mental illness.  You will read of returning memories of lives now passed and how the lives of the ones who live on have been altered.  Through these struggles we witness the development of a stronger sense of self, a more reflective and sensitive nature, and a desire to cherish each moment offered by life.

We are incredibly fortunate to have received so many works which speak with such clarity and maturity to the ever-changing myriad of life experiences, and we are grateful to the contributors who showed confidence in our vision with the submission of their work.

Please join us and travel the paths laid out by these gifted poets, authors, and artists.  Listen to their stories, contemplate their messages, and embrace their images as you consider your own lives and the lives you've touched.

O.P.W. Fredericks, Editor

Daniel Milbo, Assistant Editor