Dr Marsha Smalling, principal of Glenmuir High School in Clarendon, hopes that her first published work will bring about positivity and hope in all readers.
“I definitely want it to inspire people to action. I want it to be used as a reference when persons are desirous of transforming their valley moments into moments of value and their sad stories into stories of success. I want to see it being used in our schools, organisations, and churches as a resource for personal, spiritual, and leadership development. I want it to provide hope for those persons who are living with lupus, other autoimmune illnesses, and other chronic illnesses,” she told the Jamaica Observer.
Titled Powered Up: Leveraging Six Pillars To Live Out Loud, the book was published in December 2020 and can be purchased on Amazon. The paperback and electronic versions are also available at Glenmuir High School’s BookStore. A virtual launch was held at Glenmuir High on Sunday, March 7.
The author said she toyed with the idea of leaving an indelible mark through literature for over a decade before finally starting the manuscript.
“In 2004 I bought the book The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale and it changed my life forever. After reading it, I told myself that I wanted to also create a legacy, through writing, that would impact others in a similar manner. Powered Up was borne out of the desire to help people identify and drive their purpose, rise resiliently from their valley moments, and live their truth unabashedly. I especially wanted to assist in building an awareness of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), an illness I have been diagnosed with since 2003,” said Smalling.
Powered Up is the second version of its kind, after the author unfortunately lost the first copy she had spent months working on. However, she believes the mishap was a blessing in disguise.
“In 2019 my hard drive that I was saving the document on crashed and with all efforts, I was unable to retrieve it. I had to start over from scratch and that, of course, caused a bit of delay, but I believe the second version is more impactful,” Smalling told the Observer.
Source: https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/entertainment/dr-smalling_217036