Also by J. Z. Colby:
Ariel’s Grove
Standing on Your Own Two Feet:
Young Adults Surviving 2012 and Beyond
Ariel’s Grove
a young-adult journey of
physical, emotional, and spiritual discovery by
J. Z. Colby
Copyright © 1986 by J. Z. Colby
All rights reserved, but freely distributable as this PDF file with attribution, without charge, in its entirety ARIEL1EA23: Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF), 8.25” x 11” (printable on letter or A4 paper), 311 total pages, medium print (12-point Georgia type) This special PDF edition has no ISBN.
This story only existed as a single typed manuscript from 1986 until 2023, when it was lovingly prepared and polished.
This story is based on real people and events that the author became familiar with while living in the interesting little city of Olympia, Washington during the 1970s and 1980s. All the names and identifying details have been changed, of course.
“Ariel” and her friends followed a religious path that is today very rare. This gives the reader the possibility of feeling discomfort, perhaps even hatred. It is also an opportunity for the reader to see past the details and glimpse the essential goodness and beauty in any person’s spiritual experience.
“Ariel” only got lost on one dead-end path during her youth. The author wishes his own youth had been so uneventful, and that he had had friends like she had.
“It is not the mental immaturity of the child that I commend to you but rather the spiritual simplicity of such an easy-believing and fully-trusting little one.”
— Jesus, Urantia Book 155:6:12
