BOOK ONE—CHAPTER 3 FIRST KISS Part 1 Self Respect

Let’s introduce this next chapter in my life with a string of insights based in common sense:

Be careful what you wish for—
Because life is a mixed bag of tricks, and

Each wish granted includes surprises—some nice, some not

Respect is the basis of any lasting friendship.
So if you dismiss your own harrowing experiences as—NO BIGGIE—repeatedly—then your friendship with yourself is in trouble because—
Lasting friendships rely upon compassion based in depth perception

In the absence of compassionate depth perception, human vulnerabilities tend to be judged too harshly.
When judged too harshly, friendships can’t help but weaken, over time.

If the friendship that’s in the process of weakening is the one that we'd once enjoyed with ourselves then common sense suggests questing ever more deeply into our past to discover which early life experiences may have undermined the inner strength of self respect, which has need to feel secure if children are to develop into adults who are self empowered to remain so well grounded under fire as to by-pass sinking into emotional quicksand each time a mean minded mudslinger attempts to take the high ground by putting us down.

If depth perception does not deepen, over time, then we’re likely to remain blind to having subconsciously absorbed a bully's disrespectful attitude toward the impressionable child, whom you and I had been, and once our thought processors have absorbed thinking patterns in which we unknowingly demean ourselves, your friendship with yourself (and mine with myself) is bound to hollow out and implode sometime down the road.