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From: Christina Wood
Date: 17 Oct 2007
Time: 22:23:47 -0500
Remote Name: 66.190.12.29
Jim and Yasvin, Thank you for your insights! Your honesty about your struggles helps me to realize more clearly what joins us as human beings--we all struggle with fear, pain, and rejection, but with the help of others, we may once again climb to our feet and seek to find joy in the places we find ourselves. Thank you for reminding me that help from others is most often what's needed, whether it's an encouraging word, a kind smile and acceptance from a friend. Many times we try to go through life independently and when we fall down, we feel sorry for ourselves. When we allow our friends to walk with us, they cannot take away the pain, but they can help us to know that our sorrows are not unnoticed. I do not personally face these same issues, but you have helped to remind me why I am investing my time and energy in graduate school--so that I can help someone who struggles with stuttering and other speech issues. I do not claim to completely understand what you have gone through or faced in your life, but I have also faced pain. I can not say that I know what it feels like to be rejected because of stuttering, but I have felt the cutting wounds of rejection. I hope that what I learn, the empathy that I extend to others, and the compassion I have for persons in these situations will help to instill them with greater confidence in their own abilities. I know that I cannot mend anyone, make them "perfect" at speaking or remove their past. I can only try to bridge the gap between what they want to do and say in their life and their increasing abilities to do so. Thank your for sharing a very personal part of your lives. I do not feel qualified to say anything in response, except that I admire your courage and appreciate your efforts to help others.