Introducing Joelle Deyo, Our Newest Contributor

Joelle Deyo: A Not-so-formal Introduction

Greetings, Blogopshere!  My name is Joelle and I am an artist living in Glendora, California.  I hold a degree in Fine Art from Cal Poly, Pomona, and have been a lifelong student of the written word.

I often say that creative expression is my first language, and English, my second.  Creativity is the mode through which I communicate my deepest thoughts and feelings to the world.  It is also the primary tool I use to express love and to seek healing in my life.

In addition to being an artist, I am a survivor of divorce, addiction, infidelity, childhood sexual abuse, and Anorexia.  When I look at where my choices and the choices of others have led me in the past thirty years, I sometimes have to stop, take a deep breath, and then take another deep breath.  While I have experienced many great joys, I have also walked down some very dark and broken roads, often times believing that I have been completely alone.

Because of the life I have found on the other side of trauma, I can say that I am a true advocate for the process of recovery.  Recovery looks different and means different things to different people.  It is not just another word for rehab.  To me, recovery is about rediscovering the lost self – those parts of our core being that have been silenced, submerged, or abandoned in the midst of pain.

Recovery is also about stepping out of denial and into the light.  It is about taking those first trembling steps toward a real life, one set apart from endless trouble and dysfunction.  I believe we can get free.  I believe we can have peace.  I believe broken lives can be restored to a state of pristine beauty.

The Holidays last year marked the beginning of my climb out of the pit, and while I have come a long way since then, I still have a lot of climbing left to do.  I am honored and excited to be able to share my story and my process here at Wings.  My hope is that my experiences, past and present, will bring perspective and encouragement to those who are in the middle of their own life battles and who have been stuck in the pit, just like me.