It’s 9 am, time to face the day.
Looking into the mirror, peering into yourself, it’s clear; you aren’t the same person you were before. That’s the side effect of trauma. It has molded you; it has influenced your behavior and your rationale. And what’s worse, your family and friends have started to notice. You are trying to keep a façade, yet the cracks in it start to show, indicating a different story.
Through all the traumas, it becomes ever so difficult to keep a façade, to keep the Deception going.
Such was the life of Vanessa in Patricia Skipper’s book. Vanessa is a light-skinned beauty who has had her fair share of traumatic experiences. On the surface, she is the perfect girl owning the newsroom. However, the closer she is to happiness, the more difficult it becomes to keep her Deceptive Calm, and her true identity becomes difficult to conceal.
That begs the question, no matter how hard we try, can we really escape the past?
Traumas Are Rigid
Sure, you can try to ignore the past and make a better life for yourself. But concealing and not confronting your problem is like putting a band-aid onto a cut that requires stitches. You’re just inviting infections that can turn into something much more severe. The wound will only fester and ruin until it is too late to fix. Likewise, traumas can leave a gash in you that needs to be catered to. Most people often go straight into denial, a natural response when grieving. The truth is, the harder you try to sweep things under the rug, the more mental damage you will inflict upon yourself – this cycle will not stop until you address it. This will affect your relationships, your private and personal life, and more.
The first step to healing is acceptance, and there is no way around it.
Sacrificing Your Future
As a subsequent side effect of not addressing your past traumas, you will not only damage your present but ruin your future as well!
There will never be a problem-less life. There will be challenges; there will be hardships, and times when things will be way beyond your control. Face them with courage, and be strong enough to face your past.
You can’t keep lying to yourself because the nature of “lies” is as such: tell another lie to conceal the one told. The result? A mountain of lies, an obstacle you have unknowingly built in your path. The more obstacles you set up for yourself, the more you’ll darken your future.
As for Vanessa, she has chosen her path. Taking on the identity of a deceased White baby, she has found a new life away from her past and all the prejudice. However, the consequences of her actions are dire, for her husband seems to be onto her.
The baby is born with a Sickle Cell Disease (SCD), which is something common in people of African American decent. The cracks in the façade is beginning to show.
So, will Vanessa keep her deception intact?
Find out by picking up Deceptive Calm by Patricia Skipper now.
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