Basically, my life was always divided into two parts - pre-Grace Ellen's mental breakdown, and post - Grace Ellen's mental breakdown when I was 8 years old. Grace Ellen spent a full year at Bellevue - yes, the real Bellevue in NYC. She returned a few times after that. I was an only child with a father who appeared and mostly disappeared throughout my life, but who was never any help and often additional heartache to me.
Despite having to become the head of a household and deal with Grace's mental illness which caused her to become the child of our household of 2, and then living on my own since 14 years old (it was way easier than dealing with her,) I graduated Magna Cum Laude from Syracuse University on a full scholarship, managed to have a wonderful entrepreneurial career, and raise 2 children to healthy successful adults. Now, as a sexy senior citizen, I get to travel the world, live in different places, and have created the life I love. I even allowed the manifestation to come into my life of my rest-of-my-life partner!
This book will focus on my life from pre-birth to early twenties. I kept a journal from age 13 to 21, so a lot of it will be excerpted from that.
For more information on how this book came to be, see the post: "Write Your Book".

About this site...

Liner Notes:

I am writing my memoir "Life with Grace," and I am asking my colleagues, friends and family members to become part of a brainstorming group. This site will display rough drafts of preview chapters for you to review and comment on, and you will be invited to optional brainstorming zoom meetings to assist with the pre-launch.  Also, if you knew Grace Ellen Henriksen and have any memories to share, please please please share this with me!

~Darlene H. Grimes

You can have the other words—chance, luck, coincidence, serendipity.  I’ll take grace. 

I don’t know what it is exactly, but I’ll take it.  ~Mary Oliver

A Memoir of Darlene Henriksen Grimes

Synopsis

"Any area of your life can be healed right now. Anything in your life can be healed right now. What’s hindering you? Belief. What’s hindering you? Doubt. What’s hindering you? Limited perception. Remember this: the I Am Presence is your identity; everything else is commentary."
~Michael B. Beckwith

Does any one person have so much heartache in their life? And can that same one person also have so much joy in their life? I guess it's true what Paul said while being chained up in jail in Philippians in the Holy Bible. He said it didn't matter what the circumstances was in his life, he was going to have Joy anyway. (paraphrased from Phil 4:12-13) Because Joy is a choice. You choose to be happy from the inside out. You can choose to believe that you are a perfect creation of the most holy God who knit you together in your mother's womb in His own image and likeness. Perfect. All love. All Good. All powerful. All knowing. Enough. Actually Better than enough.
Or you can you choose to be fearful of the circumstances around you. To worry. To make yourself small. To think there are no solutions. To give up hope. And the worst thing... to not ask. Because if you ask, resources are out there to address almost any circumstance that comes up in your life. First, you can ask for a metaphysical solution, pray.
Ask God.
Then, you can take action. There is never a lack of resources, only of being resourceful.
The people who choose to be a victim make excuses, and say that they've already exhausted any resources to no avail. They say that these things only happen to them. They say that the circumstances prevent them from having Joy. The person that takes responsibility for their own life says different things. They know a solution exists, they take initiative. Mostly, they live in gratitude. They're grateful that there are all these resources available to them. They are grateful that they can choose Joy regardless of the circumstances.
Most of all, they really look in depth at what caused the circumstances and how they were a part of it. And maybe, just maybe, it was all their fault. This makes me think of one of the anthem songs of my generation, which documents the process of someone's immediate reaction to play the role of victim, to admitting:
"And I know, it's my own damn fault."
Thank you Jimmy Buffet.