Other people can be my greatest source of freedom or the chains which I allow to ensnare me. When their ideas stimulate me to search for my own knowing; to stretch for a new comprehension of an old problem or to venture forward in my own creativity, they are a pathway to freedom. But when I allow other people’s ideas and beliefs to determine what I will allow myself to think, feel, do, be or say, then I am participating in my own imprisonment. To be and continue to become my own true self, I must tell my own truth, at least to myself, even when it isn’t politically correct or acceptable to the other people in my life. Because I want to know who I really am and what I really think and how I really feel, I am a woman telling myself the truth.
Affirmations of Support and Celebration for Women by Janet F. Quinn