by Sarah Ferguson
Atria, 2011
This is a woman who has struggled all her life to find self-worth. Challenging enough for anyone, but especially for someone who's lived much of her life in the public eye, and made so many public blunders.
It was such a seeming-blunder that set Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, on the path to self-discovery. She needed to know why she continually made poor choices and wound up in scandalous predicaments.
While I am not a fan Oprah or New Age philosophy, and can therefore not agree with the spiritual conclusions Sarah reaches, I do admire her for taking on the difficult task of "finding" herself. At the end of each chapter, she offers "nuggets" to help the reader who may be on a similar journey or be strugging with the same sorts of issues. Some of these "nuggets" would seem common sense to many of us; some, I would opine, are on the "flaky" side.
Sarah emerges from the latest scandal a stronger person for finally facing her past and gaining self-understanding. She is blessed to have many resources at her disposal that the ordinary person would not have. Not everyone can go to Thailand, Hawaii, or the Northwest Territories as part of their healing process. Not everyone has the circle of friends Sarah does.
The best conclusion Sarah comes to is that God loves her and God has forgiven her of all that she has done. With all due respect, her definition of God is suspect, but otherwise it's a statement that could potentially be true.
One of my favourite lines from the book: "Pouncing on your pride is a greater sign of strength than pounding on your chest." (p. 81)
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