SARA NILES. Author and Social Media Influencer. Books, Essays, Social Awareness The lives we live determine our passions, and our passions impact the lives we live, in a dynamic, reciprocal pattern. My Life inspired me to write Memoirs: TORN From the Inside Out, The Journey, Out of the Maelstrom, Essays, Opinion Editorials, and social narratives that shed light during dark times.
Featured Post
TORN From the Inside Out & THE JOURNEY
MEMOIRS In 1973, a young woman, barely sixteen years old, and a zealous member of a cultist religious group, married a twenty-three year-o...
Thursday, June 8, 2017
Sunday, March 5, 2017
Thursday, March 2, 2017
Thursday, January 5, 2017
Torn From the Inside Out: abuse knows no bounds
Canada Torn From the Inside Out
During a cold, February thunderstorm, in the dark of night, Sara Niles fled for her life with her five children in tow, forced to disappear in order to stay alive.
Torn From the Inside Out is a true story of extreme domestic violence and family dysfunction that begins with the heroic intervention of an 83 year-old uncle, when Sara Niles was a 3 1/2 year-old child, living in a perilous climate.
Sara’s great-great Uncle Robert saves her, and takes her home to live on a beautiful, paradisiac farm to live with he, and his childless wife, Sara’s Aunt Molly.
Set in the Rural South during a time of racial conflict, Sara begins her life racially mixed, half White and half Black, during the late 1950’s. The story fast forwards, as the wonderful life provided by Sara's aged uncle and aunt falls apart, leaving Sara vulnerable to the advances of Vietnam Veteran Thomas Niles, whom she marries when only sixteen years old. Niles is a violent and abusive man, given to sudden rages and fits of mood that were entirely foreign to Sara.
True to Sara’s optimistic spirit, Sara attempts to help Thomas Niles conquer his demons, while hoping and wishing for better times, and enduring abuse, Sara eventually comes to the realization Thomas Niles is a killer, who promises to kill her and ‘every one of those children’, if she tried to leave him.
Torn From the Inside Out probes the depth of human behavior to the root of existence, as it emotionally traverses the soil of our hearts and souls. Human relationships from early childhood through adulthood, color our views of selves and the world around us. Our pasts are what make us what we are. It is the pain that is experienced through earlier life that makes us wise in hindsight; illuminating the past with new light. It is through the lens of life that Sara tells her story:
“In the process of my evolution, I became a victim of domestic war, an emotional casualty for a major portion of my life, entwined, entrapped and emotionally involved, until I learned how to become free. Freedom has never been easily gained and has often come at high cost throughout history, but one thing I will always know is freedom is worth every fight, and all pain.”
Sara Niles from Torn From the Inside Out
During a cold, February thunderstorm, in the dark of night, Sara Niles fled for her life with her five children in tow, forced to disappear in order to stay alive.
Torn From the Inside Out is a true story of extreme domestic violence and family dysfunction that begins with the heroic intervention of an 83 year-old uncle, when Sara Niles was a 3 1/2 year-old child, living in a perilous climate.
Sara’s great-great Uncle Robert saves her, and takes her home to live on a beautiful, paradisiac farm to live with he, and his childless wife, Sara’s Aunt Molly.
Set in the Rural South during a time of racial conflict, Sara begins her life racially mixed, half White and half Black, during the late 1950’s. The story fast forwards, as the wonderful life provided by Sara's aged uncle and aunt falls apart, leaving Sara vulnerable to the advances of Vietnam Veteran Thomas Niles, whom she marries when only sixteen years old. Niles is a violent and abusive man, given to sudden rages and fits of mood that were entirely foreign to Sara.
True to Sara’s optimistic spirit, Sara attempts to help Thomas Niles conquer his demons, while hoping and wishing for better times, and enduring abuse, Sara eventually comes to the realization Thomas Niles is a killer, who promises to kill her and ‘every one of those children’, if she tried to leave him.
Torn From the Inside Out probes the depth of human behavior to the root of existence, as it emotionally traverses the soil of our hearts and souls. Human relationships from early childhood through adulthood, color our views of selves and the world around us. Our pasts are what make us what we are. It is the pain that is experienced through earlier life that makes us wise in hindsight; illuminating the past with new light. It is through the lens of life that Sara tells her story:
“In the process of my evolution, I became a victim of domestic war, an emotional casualty for a major portion of my life, entwined, entrapped and emotionally involved, until I learned how to become free. Freedom has never been easily gained and has often come at high cost throughout history, but one thing I will always know is freedom is worth every fight, and all pain.”
Sara Niles from Torn From the Inside Out
Culture and Domestic Violence
The larger culture adopts beliefs and attitudes, platitudes, and apathetic stances that work against the eradication of sexual victimization of all humans. Men, women and children, both male and female children, have been and continue to be sexually exploited and abused at an alarming rate. When domestic violence preventative actions, and intervention programs operate aggressively with the backing of organizations such as Its On Us (ItsOnUs.org), public awareness and individual responsibility is raised. Each person has a responsibility to do what he or she can to prevent the sexual exploitation of children, teenagers and adults of both genders, even if this action is only a change of attitude toward this dangerous epidemic. Sexual abuse of children leads to a high degree of dysfunction as adults, especially when society blames and shames the victim so that abuse is kept secret when it should be exposed and dealt with. Society must stop shaming victims. Its On Us.http://itsonus.org/#pledgeTake the Its On Us Pledge
Tuesday, January 3, 2017
Monday, January 2, 2017
Lessons from Maya Angelou's last Memoir: Mom and Me
Maya
Angelou, was born in 1928, in St. Louis Missouri, and raised in Stamps Arkansas
by her grandmother, after her parents dissolved their relationship. The name,
Maya Angelou, was a consolidation of her childhood nickname and a shortened
form of her married name. Maya Angelou not only scripted her name, she scripted
a successful life as a multi-talented, dancer, performer, director and world
famous author.
During the
course of Maya Angelou’s self-made life, she became a civil rights activist and
close friend of Martin Luther King, and James Baldwin, all during the early
1960’s; later becoming a friend-mentor
to one of the greatest personages of our century, Oprah Winfrey.
The
autobiographical memoir, I Know Why the Caged Bird sings, was the first of many
memoirs. Mom and Me was the last. The story of the relationship forged between
the two powerhouse women, Maya Angelou and her mother Vivian Baxter, covers
several decades, from the racially segregated and tumultuous years in The
South, to the California years spent with her mother as a young teenager.
The power of
Maya Angelou’s mother’s influence upon her life journey was not completely
realized by the author until after her mother’s death. As is the case with most
of us, it is only after the years of life experience that our personal introspection
can match our external analysis of the world we inhabit; therefore, Mom and Me
was written as the last autobiographical book of the great author.
It is
through the pages of Mom and Me that we discover the subtleties of life created
by the strain between the dominant white culture and black subculture that
fueled the strong determination to not only merely survive , but thrive, by
Vivian Baxter. In a short excerpt of Mom and Me, Maya Angelou’s mother
encouraged her to persevere when faced with rejection based on race, and when
Maya succeeded in becoming the first female and first black person to secure
the job, Maya’s mother asked her what she had learned by her unrelenting
determination:
Angelou gave
the simple answer which was that she learned she was not afraid to work, and
that was “about all”, at which her mother corrected her by pointing out the
deeper lesson.
“No, you
learned that you have power”.
The
awareness of personal power was perhaps one of the greatest gifts bestowed upon
Angelou by her mother. The acutely attuned sense of self-perception, and the
strong inner drive that was forged by Angelou’s mother and grandmother, was
transferred to Angelou during her formative years. The strength, resilience, fearlessness,
and courage of Maya Angelou became the trademark character traits that defined her
as a public figure, and served her for a lifetime. It was Angelou’s mother,
Vivian who moved her to think ‘large thoughts’ and to dream big. Without
Vivian, there would not have been a Maya.
In order to
fully appreciate the journey of Maya Angelou, you must read Mom and Me, because it is more than the
last memoir of Maya Angelou, it is a window into the development of a cultural
phenomenon. The ultimate lesson is the positive force of parent upon child is
never to be underestimated.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)