My friend Janet Hamilton, a writer, shared a quote with me from Karen Salmonson. “You are too much for some people. Those aren’t your people.”

This quote struck me, it touched me and spoke directly to me and my own experience, as some quotes do. I often read the quotes of other people, and sometimes, I am surprised to find myself quoted. In a sense this quote reflects what I have been learning and writing for some time.

I am too much for some people, I always have been. But I never knew that they were not my people, I never understood that I could accept that, I always blames myself for being too much for some people.

Something must be wrong with me, I became frightened and angry. I was afraid of myself and angry at myself.

In our culture, if you think, if you ask people to think, then some people will thank you for it, and some people will hate you for it.

We are taught not to think, or to think so narrowly – the world as the left and the right – that we pose no threat to anyone.  They let us squabble like hungry chickens, we are not threat to them in this small little box.

Once you label yourself, or permit others to label you – the left and the right – then you have no need to think and no reason. Just a dog who never leaves the yard becomes sluggish and simple, so do human beings become parents, hating themselves for their dependence and mindlessness, hating others for being different from them.

And those outside of the tent, they wander among the raging ideologues, hoping for their own place in the sun. I have always been too much for some people, and always blamed myself for it. I have learned not to do that, an integral part of being authentic, of finding your voice and your place, is understanding that most people are not looking to awaken or change.

And some may hate your for trying.

You are too much for some people. Those aren’t your people. You are not too much for your people. You are just right for them.