Aubrey Elwood

AKA: Jeff Brace

Hello! Thank you from the bottom of my heart for taking time to visit. I hope to leave you changed, if only by a smile.

I invite you to share a few moments with me as I explain 

How I Came To Be In Prison

It was like a story I once heard about a trapper of monkeys in Africa. He took a small Coca-Cola bottle (the ones you used to get for a dime in machines) and tied a wire around the waist of the bottle with the other end tied to a tree. The bottle in place, he dropped in a marble. The trap was set.
    Along comes Mr. Monkey, sees the bottle, investigates, finds a shiny round treasure inside the bottle. Now Mr. Monkey reaches in and grabs the marble. With his fingers around the marble, his hand is stuck in the bottle. In panic and fear the monkey begins to pull frantically, screaming, screeching, turning flips, but to no avail. He’s stuck, but he won’t let go of the marble.
    The trapper puts a chloroform soaked rag over Mr. Monkey’s face, the monkey goes to sleep and drops the marble. The trapper then puts Mr. Monkey into a cage. That is how Mr. Monkey and I ended up in a cage.

Learning Solutions

Waking up in a cage, never realizing how or why I got there, I sought the most natural solution to being in a cage - escape. It became my solution to any problem - jail, prison, and life itself. The means of escape ranged from cunning, cutting out bars, to drugs and alcohol.

The Unavoidable Consequences

Each attempt at escape left the unavoidable pain. When escape was no longer an option, in my darkest hour, pain became the voice that demanded my attention, the only voice to which I ever listened. In that moment I knew the end was here. I surrendered, picked up a pen . . .

Imprisoned Splendor Escapes

There is a creative intelligence that lives at the center of our being, waiting for that moment of surrender-release in which who we are rushes out in ecstasy, so swiftly we wonder from where it came. We stand as a silent witness watching the bud unfold into a rose, beholding the wonder, beauty, and magic of a life transformed. It was nothing I said or did. Just a silent “yes” to life.
    Like a child conceived without a human father it lives, silently within us all, waiting . . .

The Beginning

In writing I found such freedom in expressing who I am. Through my poetry and short stories about events in my life I’ve found freedom. The ability to be honest and share my heart.
    There is no magic gate to walk through when I leave prison. So now I ask, would you be a part of this success story? Please write!