Baird,

I spent a great deal of time being cruel to myself and winding up paralyzed because of it. The thing that got me out of the rut was learning to be compassionate with myself. A lot of this is written from my own experience. As I have grown comfortable with imperfection and self-compassion I have also found myself more skilled and productive than ever. Some of that is simply due to the growth of my skills and expertise, but a lot of it is due to a newfound ability to move forward in important things because I choose to and not because I'm driven by outside circumstances.

To the degree that those deeply personal lessons have informed my life, they also show up in my writing. There are other themes, too -- mainly my distrust of power, and my desire for authenticity. But self-compassion is one of the most common recurring themes in my writing.

Thank you as always for your kind support. Also, keep an eye out for me on Substack; I'm going to start up something new, and very different from what I'm doing here.

Best wishes,

J