Friends,

I was conversing with one of my friends the other day, and she read me an article from her local paper, which struck a chord.

I'm sharing this here to see if this also strikes a chord with you.

How many of you think that your mother or father or parents tried to change your personality?

In other words this thought is based on the premise that we all have a basic personality that is uniquely ours when we come into this world.

For example, I know my mother was always trying to make me like her. I'm not just saying she was teaching me various things, which were very helpful, but I got the unique impression that she didn't like me the way I was.

Worse than that if I exhibited any personality traits like my father, THAT WAS REALLY BAD.

I am not 59, about to turn 60. My mother has been dead for 10 years now, and I feel like I'm just starting to get a sense of the real me.

At some level I think I'm still afraid to come out, and just be me, b/c subconsciously I think my mother is going to verbally attack me.

I've decided that my true self is a lot more laid-back than my mother was. She was always saying something like, "Come on, we have to hurry." I never knew exactly where we were hurrying off to.

I think this constant pressure to hurry, and being around her WAY TOO MUCH, is the major cause of my underlying feelings of anxiety.

Now grant it, my parents got married, and then the Depression happened. That must have been pretty scarey. Both parents also came from wealthy families, but were both cheated out of their inheritances.

Anyway my mother passed on to me through all types of comments she made to me as a child, about money. I have tremendous anxiety in this area.

Fortunately, I was given the gift of faith from my heavenly father, or the whole money deal would be intolerable.

I was making $58,000/yr. before my position was eliminated at a Fortune 500/1000 company, when I was 54. However, even though our cash inflows have been downright meager the last five years, my heavenly father has faithfully provided for my every need.

Let me know if you identify with any of this?

EJ