Walk to Beautiful, an inspirational autobiography by Jimmy Wayne, the homeless kid turned country music singer/songwriter/star who stands in integrity on his country music platform pitching prophetic lyrics in an effort to effect lives and laws regarding foster youth of America, was released on October 7, 2014 by W Publishing Group, an imprint of Thomas Nelson, Inc.
Anyone who knows Jimmy Wayne has been breathlessly awaiting this release. Anyone who thinks they know Jimmy Wayne is in for an eye-opening, jaw-dropping account of what is hard to believe a child could endure, survive and thrive from.
On the surface Walk to Beautiful is a memoir, an autobiography, a story of a homeless kid who found the way when love finally opened its door to him. At its end, it’s a story of putting one’s life lessons to work in a positive way to effect a difference in the world. But at its core, Walk to Beautiful is a story of resilience, determination, integrity and faith. Faith that there really is someone who loves and protects us when those we’re supposed to be able to rely on in life has let us down, abandoned, and beat us physically and emotionally.
A month after its release, Jimmy Wayne’s “Walk to Beautiful: The Power of Love and a Homeless Kid Who Found the Way” found its way to the New York Times Bestseller List. Allow this book, this author and this story to find its way into your mindset – and support Jimmy in supporting homeless youth of America and a system in need of change.
From the prologue to the epilogue Walk to Beautiful will change you the way Jimmy says “Bea changed every cell in my body”.
The book is uniquely laid out into four parts, a literary GPS that will guide you right back to whatever time period in Wayne’s life you want to re-reflect on later. But the story starts in flashback fashion with Jimmy confessing,
“I hated my life. I hated living. I hated everything and everyone. I just wanted to die.” and challenges God that “if you are really there, give me a reason to change the meaning of FTW” – three initials that “most of the foster kids I’d met knew what the initials signified” and that “expressed exactly what I felt inside.”
From there “A Wake-Up Call” briefly introduces readers to Jimmy’s country music success and his life-changing, self-reflection of it all.
You’re then taken on the walk of your life as Jimmy shares “The Crazy Years”, an understated section title highlighting gruesome details of Jimmy’s youth wrought with sex, drugs, alcohol, the witnessing of horrific acts of violence, abuse, abandonment, attempted murder, suicide, degradation and incarceration – all before the age of 15, much of which he experienced in the very early years of childhood.
“Saved By Love” tells the tale of an elderly couple that opened their hearts and door to Jimmy. Russell and Bea Costner gave Jimmy an ultimatum but never judged nor questioned his past.
“The Walk” invites you to an arm chair premier of what Jimmy did with his “Wake-Up Call” self-reflection. It’s a seven-month walk Wayne trekked halfway across America, simulating homelessness from Tennessee to Arizona, to raise awareness of homeless youth and foster kids aging out of the system. A walk where Jimmy was stopped in his tracks physically, professionally and environmentally, yet not personally. A walk where once again Wayne’s resilience and integrity continued to be tested and continued to shine.
Walk to Beautiful is a biography, a story the author shares with open, honest and grueling detail. Yet Wayne’s purpose, it seems, is not to amass sympathy. It’s to amass awareness “to anyone who will listen”. To the kids in the foster system – a life of crime doesn’t have to be your chosen path, a life of hardship doesn’t have to define you. To voting Americans and government officials – Jimmy has crunched the numbers. It’s more cost- and humanly-effective to extend care and opportunity, rather than categorization and incarceration, to the foster youth of America.
To all of America Walk to Beautiful is a story that shows how one person can make a difference in one life and that if each of us accepted that challenge many lives would be positively affected in many ways.
If you think you’re not here for a purpose, you’ll think twice at the conclusion of Walk to Beautiful, Jimmy Wayne’s tale of holding on to the one hand that challenged him, taught him, saved him and awarded him – faith – dressed in so many disguises most wouldn’t have recognized it.
Walk to Beautiful is not for the faint of heart. But at a time when state and national child protection systems are strife with abuse and neglect allegations and Massachusetts alone is reporting over one thousand homeless and/or at risk youths, Walk to Beautiful is a must-read for everyone who claims they care and want to “Bea” somebody.
Learn more about and follow Jimmy Wayne,
Award Winning Musician, New York Times Best Selling Author and Keynote Speaker:
FOSTER CARE MONTH
MONTH OF MAY (2015) SPECIAL
Kindle Edition ONLY $2.99
click picture below to go directly to “Walk To Beautiful’s Amazon Kindle page
Jimmy Wayne Website
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Article originally published on March 6, 2015 at Country Music Enterprise & The Write Copywriter
