About the series All Parts Matter

As an unknown author of the quote knew:

      "Self-love is the greatest middle finger of all time"

It all began on my seventieth birdie when I declared, in an interview with my neighbor who was documenting the occasion, that "I was going to be who the hell I truly am."

In the beginning, I had no direction or roadmap for the journey that I didn't even know was necessary, just a feeling that after decades of a life responding to the norms proffered by the world, I wanted to be the human I was meant to be, the one I yearned to be. Yet I did not know who that truly was.

I have worn many hats as a volunteer fire fighter to law enforcement to a pioneer in the organic and sustainable foods for the food service industry and now an artist, poet, and author.  I adapted well to the world's requirements and achieved acceptance and membership in its business, social and service establishments. But i knew inside me, there was more.  All that had just occupied time. there was more to me. I could feel it inside me, but who was me.

From ancient philosophers, teachings of world religions, to modern thinkers, self-love is only achieved by an individual process. It requires the individual to discover the whole true self by self-examination. I call it identifying your parts and retrieving the parts lost, taken, given, loaned, hidden or unknown.

My journey to self-love was piloted by a voice from within.  It took me 12 years to reach it, encountering along the way the empowering benefits and insights which would otherwise have been lost to me had I not taken the journey.

My series "ALL PARTS MATTER", Volumes One, Two and now Three has been written to help you shorten your own journey to self-love.

To love yourself, you must first know yourself (Volume One). To know yourself, you need to learn how to begin to discover yourself (Volume Two).

Volume Three ties together Volumes One and Two but departs from their format to one that is more narrative with few poems and quotes. It tells my story of journey with the hope that the read will have a fuller understanding of such a journey and its the benefits of seeking to know yourself and achieving true self love.