By Shirley Shuman
Attendees at the Sutton High School Alumni Dinner July 1 will have a special opportunity. Sue Kidd Shipe, one of their own as an SHS graduate, will be present in the Braxton County High School commons area from 2 to 5 p.m. to sign and sell copies of her book, YOU ARE LOVE, CHRISTIANITY TRANSFORMED. This is the latest of Shipe’s books discussing what she refers to as love and transformation needed for the upcoming New World she sees on the horizon.
Shipe, founder of the International Institute for Human Empowerment, Inc., has gone far since she left Sutton, where, as Suzie Kidd, she played the organ at Sutton Baptist Church throughout her high school years. Her journey took her to West Virginia University for a degree in music, one of the loves of her life. She followed that with a Master’s and PhD in music education.
Shipe married and moved to New York. Following a divorce, she moved to a quieter area of that state, where she taught music for years and raised her children. She also served as an elementary school principal and worked at the state level for 10 years. It was during the latter position that she became very ill and had to quit work.
As the fibromyalgia from which she suffered prevented her working, Shipe began reading, writing, and meditating. During this time, she developed the ability to meditate, and, with pen or pencil in hand, record thoughts which came to her. Many of these, along with ideas which came to her at other times, appear in her books and led to her writing her first book, United We Stand.
Throughout a major part of her writing, Shipe projects love as energy which we all need to deal with what she refers to as the “New World.” Asked when this New World would appear, she noted that it is already in transition. Here she said that, to adapt to this New World, we must develop “our other senses beyond the five physical senses.” These other senses, which she uses, include “knowing,” “feeling,” “sensing,” and more.
The experience with fibromyalgia led to Shipe’s working with a task force to educate individuals about the disease. She explained that in her fibromyalgia support group other patients had stories similar to hers. She said, “Realizing that there was a need for more information, and because I had already gotten a non-profit charity established, a small group of us decided to put together a free conference for the community. Physicians and therapists donated their time and expertise.” .
After receiving a grant, Shipe explained, they “got people who knew the disease—a human rights attorney, a Social Security disability attorney, business people” among others to form a definite task force which became the Fibromyalgia Task Force of New York State. They still go to the New York Legislature when that body passes the group’s resolution for Fibromyalgia Awareness Week in New York State. Using a compilation of notes members had taken during their meetings, Shipe wrote a booklet containing information on the disease and how one can cope with it. With the grant, the Task Force was able to distribute “about 6,000” of these booklets.
Sue Kidd Shipe explained why she wrote her books. “My purpose was to receive the information that comes to me and to publish it in a way that people can understand it,” she said. Those who purchase her latest book can determine for themselves whether she has achieved her goal.
