Soulscript ─ Journaling My Way to Self-discovery and Love

Through the pages of his daily journal, 75-year old Hugh Roberts shares his journey through grief following the death of his wife. He is haunted by indecision, wondering what he should do now to live a new, “abundant life” full of meaning and passion. Daily meditations evolve into conversations with Spirit (God by any name), whose voice gently encourages the widower to let go of his insecurity and share more of himself with others. Hugh joins a small healing-through-writing group for people who have suffered from the impact of cancer and begins to write and reflect on what his soul reveals. After seven decades of low self-esteem, living convinced that he was never good enough, the author learns to accept himself just as he is, free from pervasive self-doubts. But as a key friendship deepens, he wonders: is it too soon to risk this new-found freedom by falling in love again? Or is it too late?

Hugh J. Roberts, PhD (Agricultural Biochemistry, Purdue University), M.Div. (Duke Divinity School), is a Canadian expatriate who emigrated to the US as a young man in the 1940s. His first career encompassed positions as a research scientist and director of research and development in agribusiness, and later as executive director and vice president for nonprofit international development organizations focused on agriculture, food, and nutrition. During this twenty-year career he presented at a number of national and international meetings and conferences, authored publications in several scientific journals, wrote chapters for two books in the field of carbohydrate chemistry, and edited the proceedings of several conferences on small-scale biointensive food production. While attending Duke Divinity School in the 1980s, Dr. Roberts published two papers in The Journal of Black Sacred Music: “Spiritual Songs and Hymns: A Review (Vol. 2, No. 2, Fall 1988, p. 88); and “Improvisation, Individuation, and Immanence” (Vol. 3, No. 2, Fall 1989, p. 50). After graduation and ordination, he served as pastor of several United Methodist churches in New Mexico until his retirement in 2001. The Reverend Dr. Roberts lives in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, with his wife, the Reverend LouAnn Asbury.