"Self pity is our worst enemy and if we yield to it, we can never do anything wise in the world."
Helen Keller
"Self-pity gets you nowhere. One must have the adventurous daring to accept oneself as a bundle of possibilities and undertake the most interesting game in the world making the most of one's best."
Harry Emerson Fosdick
Excerpt for the Week
Book: The Legacy
In my twenty-two years of life, I have
seen and suffered things no one should have to. Having been raised by
an alcoholic mother and an abusive father, childhood was nothing but
miserable for me. From the age of six to twelve years old, when other
children were laughing and playing and sharing secrets with their
friends, I was a woman-child, barely surviving and telling my secrets
to no one. In the afternoons after school when I should have been
busy being a child, I was subjected to the screams of my mother as my
father beat her. And at night while other children were safely tucked
in their beds and sleeping, I was forced to endure the sickening
presence of my father in my room as he abused and defiled me.
One day my mother finally found the
courage to leave her husband. She packed our things while he was
working and moved us from Charlotte back to her hometown of
Asheville. Unfortunately, the move was too little, too late, for my
life had been permanently scarred. And it didn’t help that every
man my mother moved into our home seemed to think I should be part of
the deal.
Throughout my life I felt dirty and
cheap, but more than anything, I felt alone. There was no one I could
turn to and share my painful burdens. Later in life, that loneliness
guided me to make decisions that only added to my misery, bringing
even more shame upon me.
A single tear slips down my cheek as I
remember the days and nights of endless partying, each episode filled
with drugs, alcohol, and sometimes immoral conduct. When I was
younger, my father made it his solemn duty to tell me repeatedly that
I was worthless and only good for one thing in life. It seemed his
comments found a permanent place in my mind and heart. My father had
foreseen my future and helped as much as he could to make that future
happen. But I know in the end the choices had been my own, just as
the choice to finally change my life had been.
The all new revised edition of The Legacy will be available this weekend in paperback and Kindle format on Amazon.com
