Sunshine on the Horizon: Picking up the Sunshine Rays and Putting Them in a Basket

By Peggy M. Ridge Oliver

"This book is about me and the adversity that he has beset me in this community due to my diagnosed mental illness and my advocacy for the mentally ill. Many of the poems come from life experiences in the past and absorb the reality of death.
There were days when no one encouraged me, many ignored me, and others talked about me. This weaved in and out of the poetry when I felt this pain and wrote it out in my poetry.
There are also poems relating to nature that revive my mind and inspires me to continue on. America is in some of my poems and how I feel that a nation has come so far but up at a standstill now. I listen to the news everyday because when I graduated in 1963, that was what we were told to do- keep up with the news because the world would get smaller and my poetry reflects what is going on in the world today.
This book is a combination of adversity, nature, death, and world conflict. And I think all can relate to my book in diverse ways.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 1, 2010
• ISBN: 9781453558560

Peggy M. Ridge Oliver

This book is about me and the adversity that he has beset me in this community due to my diagnosed mental illness and my advocacy for the mentally ill. Many of the poems come from life experiences in the past and absorb the reality of death. There were days when no one encouraged me, many ignored me, and others talked about me. This weaved in and out of the poetry when I felt this pain and wrote it out in my poetry. There are also poems relating to nature that revive my mind and inspires me to continue on. America is in some of my poems and how I feel that a nation has come so far but up at a standstill now. I listen to the news everyday because when I graduated in 1963, that was what we were told to do- keep up with the news because the world would get smaller – and my poetry reflects what is going on in the world today. This book is a combination of adversity, nature, death, and world conflict. And I think all can relate to my book in diverse ways. My name is Peggy Marie Ridge Oliver, mother of two children, and grandmother of eight. The last I counted. I have a B.A. degree in social work and was pursuing a second B.A. degree in English Literature/Creative writing which was not a completed due to a medical condition. On top of all this, I have had a mental illness for 30 years and accomplished all of the above. Most professional people, especially in the mental health field, say I am a remarkable woman because many people with a diagnosed mental illness do not accomplish this in a lifetime.

Book preview

Introduction

Sunshine on the Horizon: Pickup Up the Sunshine Rays and Putting Them in A Basket

I am in misery. I am in pain. My life is going nowhere. Just all downhill from the bottom of the pail getting deeper into all the rubbish called this beloved land.

I’m too tired to do anything but just take up my pen and write down exactly how I feel.

It has been many months since the sun has really shined in my life and I am taking up all the sun ray shells and putting them in my pail to start painting a new horizon for me and the world, which is in terrible shape and bent on destruction. What has happened to everyone and why are they all upset because they have made everything a lie. But I can turn it around and I soon will take an easel and paint colorful sunlight all over the dark and shadowy places in this old world.

The sunshine is yet there and it is shining beyond the clouds that are hidden from its sight. I once was told that there is a silver lining in every cloud and I believed it with all my heart and all the darkness disappeared. Well, once again the clouds are trying to cover all that sunlight deepened with bright, yellow glowing hues and hiding behind those dark thunderous clouds that are about to burst forth with all its venom to take its toll on this old world. But, as Elisha prayed for the rain one time and took a position on his knees and would not give up until the one small cloud brought forth a monumental rain and it rained for many days. That’s the way my little brush will take all the colorful and gleaming shattering and smattering hues of yellow golden sunlight and paint over the dark clouds and bring forth sunlight into my world. Maybe others cannot see the colorful waterfall of colors that has turned the dark stormy clouds into sunshine into my world. I feel a ray of hope coming forth into my soul that says it will soon be daylight and the morning will bring a new beginning to your world and don’t give up because life will get better if you keep holding onto all the hope in your heart and soul that is singing a melody of tunes to make all your blues go away.

Your path is only for a moment and soon you will have rest from these aches and pains because the paint brush is working on the moor of the marney to turn all the somber tones of color into something more bright and make you want to continue on your journey picking up all the sun rays and putting them into your pail because tomorrow will bring forth a new and glorious day.

Answering The Call

I really don’t know what happened in 1992. I called it a whirlwind. But some people had gotten out of the way of God, although there really is no other way out, and decided to put the blame on me. I was the one off. The one trying to lead the people off a cliff, with no way back in. this church wanted me to be what white man’s version of black women—a prostitute. All the time they were doing all the time they were doing me in, at church, outside of church. I was praying continuously for them, also my family. Because I knew we were in great danger. I tried to tell them that I had a calling on my life. Which was the whole gist of this battle, to stop a calling. They wondered how could this be? She’s black; she’s a whore. So they tried to get me addicted to drugs, kill me, lock me up or anything to bring this poor wretched black woman to face reality. There is no God for you all—we have a white God, we have money, we have cars and we have prosperity. You have nothing. Then they laughed in my face that they would live and I would die. That’s when I told God! I said, God, I am tired of this craziness. Do something about it.

Well, it’s been about nine years or more, and I’m yet alive, fell better than I ever did, and doing just what I said I would do—writing about you crazy folks. Then I spoke through the Holy Ghost. I heard their cry of desperation that I have messed up so bad and I don’t think I can get back in, so I have chosen another way out. What other way out could it be? Then weak leaders get his kind of thinking and what I witness was a very sorry set of circumstances. A cohort of people had gotten out of the will of God and would not repent then not only too themselves but many others.

I was strong enough in the Lord to know if my physical life was taken that I would be better off than these folks whom decided they were going to live on planet earth the rest of their life doing what they wanted to do. In fact my own death was the lest of my worries. Onset of this battle in 1992, I was very sick in my body, and one morning, the enemy just spoke to me and said, you will die. It didn’t upset me and I immediately went to the Bible, open it up and I don’t know the specific scripture but it called me beloved and said even when I died, I would have a crown. This was a win-win situation and the fear of death left me and I really think one cannot be set free until the fear of death leaves you. In fact, I shouted and danced so, at church, they thought I was insane, but, I had been set free from all the circumstances in my life, and most of all the fear of death. People have different ways of rejoicing and since they refused to rejoice with me. I just shook the dust off and went on to do what the Lord wanted me to do—help the mentally ill. When I seen my brothers and sisters in bondage when no one would lift a finger to help them. I simply