I love a good inspirational story. If I read them in magazines I will often cut them out and keep them in a folder to look at later. Once such story appeared in the October 15, 2007 issue of The Bottom Line. The article is written by a guy named Dave Pelzer that I intend to become more familiar with. He wrote a book titled "A Child Called 'It'" and another book called "Help Yourself".

He was so severely abused by his mother as a child that a psychologist predicted that he would commit suicide or end up in prison if he survived into his adult life. Instead of succumbing to that horrible fate, he writes books to teach other people about forgiveness and moving beyond the traumas that have occurred in their lives.

On that note, Denise Linn has a book called "If I Can Forgive, So Can You". Its all about how she has taken the tragedies in her life and assigned new meaning to them in order to live a healthy, fulfilling life instead of weighing herself down with grief and self pity for things in the past.

So many of us define ourselves and our worth by horrors, tragedies and even minor infractions that have occurred in the past and we never move past them. We bemoan them so much that they grow to be a part of us and rule all of our other outcomes! We can't erase the past, but we're more than our past. We have the choice to move on, assign new meanings, get past things and create our fabulous futures!
Much love.
Cheryl