ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on healing, about ways to make the hurt go away. Like all the books hell books have written, it comes to her from places dark and deep within her, secret, mysterious places, where the ancestors dwell, along with countless spirits and angels. In that southern black world, black folks believed in 'higher powers', knew that forces stronger than the will and intellect of humankind shaped and determined our existence, the way we lived. They knew how to live well and long despite adversity, pain, hardship, unrelenting poverty, and the ongoing reality of loss. The book about reconciliation is meant to serve as a map, charting a journey that can lead us back to that place dark and deep within us, we were first known and loved, where the arms that held us hold us still.
