The Gifts of Imperfection

The Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon brought me here.

Working with Family and Children Services has been an exhaustive process with countless hours of classes as we work to integrate two new teens in our lives. Brené Brown's name came up with almost reverential fervour as we talked about empathy.

Soon I'm seeing her name everywhere. Her book Daring Greatly starts popping up in my social feeds and then several folks on Quora list The Gifts of Imperfection as a must read.

The book has clouds, a soaring dove and hands forming a heart on the cover. This is not my typical wheelhouse.

I don't know what it is about these books. It's like they just don't stick. I'm reading the words but all I'm retaining is the garbled whronk-ronk of the adults in a Peanuts cartoons. I'm wholeheartedly nodding along to what she's saying as I'm reading it but I just can't seem to retain any of it. Hopefully this isn't a sign that I'm repressing something awful. It's like my mind has stuck it's fingers in it's ears and babbled “la-la-la” the whole time.

I don't think I read self-help right. It's like it demands a different, more active reading than literary fiction. I'm out of practice.