I Will Not Be Broken: by Jerry White - Connect
Julia Q

Phoenix, AZ

1/14/2009 6:17:16 PM
Dear Jerry,

Mine is not a story of devastation, but one of surviving a lifetime of challenges which have eaten away at the fabric of who I am.   

As a very brief background; I grew up as the daughter of a kind and gentle army officer (who was often absent) and a bitter and angry mother, so I often felt unloved and unwanted.  At 16 I was date-raped, and married the man because I felt it was the honorable thing to do.  After being beaten for 3 years, I escaped with my two children and started a new life.  I put myself through school, and things were improving, when I got a call at work one day saying that I had just lost everything in a fire at my apartment building. 

My life has been full of exhausting challenges and exhilarating opportunities.  I will be 60 this year, and I have always considered myself an optimist, a survivor, and a thriver.   But this past year, something in me changed.   I found myself exhausted by the seemingly endless barrage of betrayal, loss, and pain, and I have felt unable to continue.   I knew that I had a choice of life or death, and began to consciously choose death as a welcome relief to the endless challenges that seemed to come my way.   I felt alone.  I withdrew from family, friends, and my community.  I felt like my life was grinding to a halt.  

Just in the short time that I have purchased and read your book, I have realized that I am not alone, and that there are probably many other people out there who are feeling the same way I have been - beaten by life itself.  The book has been a real blessing, and already, I can feel myself shifting back from victim to thriver.  Now that I have a clear awareness of the difference, I will be on guard to protect my life from the victim mentality.  

It's time to get back to work - being of service to others and making a difference in our world, in whatever way I can. I have already begun to reconnect with family and friends, and I am feeling better already.  

Thank you, so much, for writing this book.   It will serve as a beacon of light for those of us who, somehow, have forgotten our way.