Inspired by Truth

By Sally Dukes

I have always been in awe of those novels I read that are fiction at its best. You can delve deeply into a story with complex characters and intriguing narratives. The pages turn effortlessly, before you know it, the clock has struck midnight. How do authors do it, I often wonder. How do they create dynamic and heartfelt conversations? How do their words instill such compassion that you weep for/with their characters and then join them wholeheartedly in celebrating their life’s journey. It is indeed art. It is indeed enviable.

My memoir, drummer girl, does not demonstrate solid plot development, nor is the character, me, that dynamic. What it is, however, is based on truth, my truth, and because of that, it is heartfelt and its theme universal. Readers can relate to pain, they like to champion a cause, they like to identify with the main character. 

Any memoir is inspired by true events. There is a story to be told. An ember burns deep. When I was three years old, I had surgery on my heart, actually on the vessels just outside of my heart, but because it was the early fifties, the choices available today, were not the choices available then. Open heart was the solution. A deep cut across the chest, from sternum to underarm. During the surgery, I had an experience that has lived beside me for 70 years. It is raw, it has been painfully isolating, and it has become the thread that has shaped my thoughts and feelings and quite honestly, my outlook on life.

I never put a name to the event, until I began to read excerpts from Raymond Moody’s research. In my late twenties, I realized that this other-worldly experience was a near-death experience. I traveled into the darkness only to be guided by a clear light and met with profound violet energy: love. When several years ago I read The Way of the White Clouds by Lama Anagarika Govinda, my experience was thus validated. He referred to death as “the great compassionate one.” If truth be told, I can confirm, death does not come cloaked in darkness, death is light, death is love. Therefore, when it is your turn to meet death, do not fear. You will be basked and swaddled in an energy far greater than any love you have experienced on this earth.

When I decided to write drummer girl, or should I say, when drummer girl decided to write me, I went back through years of journal entries, academic papers, and therapeutic notes. In the process of collating, I discovered that every twist or turn that my life had taken, was really in search of discovering, recovering my true self. I was led by a need far greater than I was aware of. The ember burned just under the surface.

I was surprised to find that this was not just a memoir about me, but the story of a pilgrimage. The pilgrim is driven by a force from within, possibly not even recognizable, yet so compelling that one cannot turn away. It leads to places for consciously unknown reasons, yet the pilgrim follows. This unfolding journey of life speaks to the evolution of humanity. To be human, we must all meet and overcome obstacles, big or small. That is this life.

The writing flowed, when it was inspired by truth. Because this ultimately is a story about the search to find my true self, when writing I often had to pause and wait. Wait for the memory to unfold, wait for the sight, smell, and the emotional body to ground itself in the past experience. Only then, could I write authentically. Only then could words capture an experience that took root in my inner world.

Yet, the question remained, how does one write about a near-death experience, when death itself is beyond space and time and therefore, beyond the spoken word. My descriptions fall short of the actual experience, yet they speak to those of this world. We share a common language, that is our best communication vehicle. We all understand clear light, dark tunnel, and violet energy. What we cannot share is the actual cosmic residue that has lingered long after the actual experience.

Interestingly, drummer girl maps a life in search of answers, and in that search, the reader can walk beside her, witness life through her lens and become intimate with her struggles. These are her truths. When you write from truth, there is an enormous vulnerability, the more honest you present, the more open the flow. It is like sharing your diary, unabridged, it is like running naked through the streets, each step a shedding. It is like ripping a bandage off already chaffed skin. No matter how bloody, how raw or how scabbed over, these are the wounds to share, these are the wounds that speak to the truth.

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SALLY DUKES: Sally Dukes is published in the Journal of Sandplay Therapy (volumes II, III, IX) and has spoken nationally as an educator and psychotherapist.

A successful business owner and committed healer, Sally expanded her career through academic pursuits in psychology and contemplative practice. Her studies deepened her understanding of the mythos that can unconsciously shadow one’s persona. As a psychotherapist, she paid careful attention to her client’s narrative, witnessing their pain, their joy and, in turn, became their unbiased mirror. As an educator, she taught middle school students to give voice to their emerging selves. As an independent editor, she helped writers to better align their messaging with their heart.

True healing does not come in a pill or a prescription. It comes when our stories are heard, and our humanity recognized and honored. Sally Dukes believes in the power of narrative as medicine. “drummer girl” (March 17, 2026) is her narrative, her truth. Learn more about Sally and her work at: www.sallydukes.com

Drummer Girl: A Story of Life After Death 

In the search for her truth, Sally Dukes takes the reader on a difficult yet compelling pursuit, the unfolding of life into death and back again. Plagued by near death, drummer girl’s experience at the edge propelled her to seek understanding, to look for words when there were none, and to find solace through life’s many turns.

Drummer girl gives language to an archetypal unfolding; it makes practical the passing from this life. By taking the fear out of death and shedding light on the nuances experienced in daily life, drummer girl awakens the soul and spirit of those who fear the dark. Heartwarming and honest, this book can give those facing death at any stage of life comfort in knowing what lies beyond the veil.

Death does not come cloaked in darkness.

Death is light. Death is love.

Death is the wholeness of the return.

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Tags: featured, women writers

Category: On Writing