Many people have written to me recently through this blog. I am sorry I haven’t been able to respond individually, but I have read every personal story and every note that has reached out to connect with me or with the topics in my memoir in a meaningful way.

Thank you.

There is a common thread in many of your letters. You are saying that we have a gut instinct, a personal “knowing” about who we are and what we need to live our lives, and too often, that doesn’t fit into the expectations of the society around us. We are not supported, and we struggle – sometimes against serious resistance – to believe in ourselves and trust ourselves. Sometimes we give up, deciding at last that society must be right: other people’s beliefs, decisions and rules are wiser and more valuable than our own. This is how we can come to see ourselves: that each of us, individually, is just one person, trying her best but no expert. No one special.

How can that be true?

Think about what we are saying to ourselves: Someone else knows who I am and what I need better than I do. Other people are wiser, stronger, better, more worthy than I am. 

How can that be true?