As a sufferer of depression for many years, I know the importance of trying to find positive experiences in each day, no matter how small.

— Sharon E. Rainey

By first grade, my sense of worth was in direct proportion to what I learned and what I contributed back to the class. I had already become a human doing instead of a human being.

— Sharon E. Rainey

Extreme emotional pain has a profound effect on the body. I witnessed my already frail body become even more toxic and plundered.

— Sharon E. Rainey

Forgiveness does not mean I approve of or condone what transpired.

— Sharon E. Rainey

Forgiveness enables me to walk away from that pain, the loneliness and suffering.

— Sharon E. Rainey

I can’t cure anyone. I can’t guarantee they will heal. Furthermore, I can only tell them my story, remind them that they are not alone in their journey and offer a glimmer of hope for healing.

— Sharon E. Rainey

I did the only thing I knew how to do: I built my own walls of silence to disguise my desperation and what later came to be recognized and diagnosed as depression.

— Sharon E. Rainey

I had to clear up my messy life. By letting go of the debris and filth, I have come to a deeper, more soulful beauty and clarity like an oasis in the desert. From that place of clarity, a vision of what I could have, what I could do, who I could be had emerged if I allow my heart to become a place of compassion, acceptance and forgiveness.

— Sharon E. Rainey

I have learned through repeated experiences that in order to heal, I MUST forgive. The forgiveness is not for the transgressor. The forgiveness is for ME.

— Sharon E. Rainey

I’m not ‘different’ from anyone else. Crises and tough emotional periods are the grit around which my inner self has been formed. Some, I have come through with more grace than others.

— Sharon E. Rainey