Today we’d like to introduce you to Ashley .
Hi Ashley, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Gracefully Broken-How the effects of an absent parent can lead to emotional freedom, healing, and authentic relationships is a personal journey about growing up dealing with kinship adoption, all while having an estranged to merely no relationship with my birth mother. Writing the book was a healing process and allowed me to come full circle with the reality of my traumatic experience growing up. At some point in my life, I became frustrated and so misunderstood that I felt I needed to let it out. I needed to face my situation head-on and feel everything at the moment before moving forward in life. I didn’t seek to be an author per se. I just knew I wanted to let it out.
Helping others, letting them know that they are not alone and that the absence of someone that is supposed to be the closest to you doesn’t have to be the end of you. The journey is definitely about my story, but it’s about so much more.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The journey has not been smooth. Many setbacks occurred while writing the book. One of the setbacks I faced was thinking I had fully forgiven what could not be forgotten. But man, was I wrong! Memories, triggering moments, and moments I put behind me came back as I began to write.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am a self-published author of Gracefully Broken-How the effects of an absent parent can lead to emotional freedom, healing, and authentic relationships. I help those dealing with the absence of a parent(s) and children in the foster care system deal with their emotions by facing them, accepting them, and overcoming the residual effects of their trauma to live freely and create healthy relationships in the future. The thing I’m most proud of is how far I’ve come from birth until now, how I gracefully turned those things that once broke me into pieces into a masterpiece. I’m also humbly proud to be able to reach a generation at such a time as this, where they feel hopeless.
What would you say has been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
Be honest with yourself, always. I’ve learned that it’s okay not to be always okay. I’ve also learned that you can take a not-so-great situation, go through all your motions of feelings, thoughts, etc. and use it as a driving force to help encourage the next person who may not have the ability to press forward or who may feel the hopelessness.
Pricing:
- My book is available for purchase at www.theashleymsmith.com for $20
Contact Info:
- Website: www.theashleymsmith.com
- Instagram: meashleymsmith
- Facebook: Ashley M Smith
Image Credits
Photographer- LB Photography
