I had a conversation where a dear friend's self-recrimination reflected my own negative self-talk so profoundly that it burst from its usual enclosure and collided with my current reading of Lessons in Magic and Disaster, which had me thinking about my truest desires and trying to listen to my most authentic self, and that collision resulted in the following thought that I'm now chewing on today: -- If I really genuinely thought I was a "bad" person, then why would I strive as I do to be my most authentic self? -- I think I may secretly like me a little, and that feels...different.