Hi, What is NAWW? I wonder how I would explain myself if I went to get a job-job. After all, I haven't "worked" in ten years. I left property management 10 years ago, and I left the stress. I had to "make nice" with people who were screaming in my face about rent increases, etc. Anyway, when I quit, when I could let down my guard, repressed memories surfaced so that finally I could begin a healing journey from my past. There was no way I could deal with the issues of abuse during therapy AND have a job. I was grateful that I had that time to heal. Then I had the opportunity to go back to school. I wanted a degree in psychology, sociology, or social work, and social work was available. I walked into a scholorship and sold a car to afford the education. While there I had some administrative jobs, but no big deal. It was all I could do to stick with it and finish. Just as I was about to finish, with only the internship to complete, I was diagnosed with cancer. I asked if I could wait 6 months for surgery, and the doctor said I would be waiting to die because it was a fast growing cancer. So I stopped the education to deal with cancer for 2 years. I blamed myself, and told myself, see, Lynn, you found a way not to finish something! (When I started back to college my mother even said, "Is this yet another thing you are going to start and not finish.") It took everything to finish. And I forced myself to finish my book. My point, Sugar, is not in judgment but in understanding. I had a plastic surgeon who know me well, and when I was released, I said, jokingly, "It's so hard for me to focus. I wonder if I am a candidate for the adult ADD drug." And she said, "You think??" as in, "well, duh I knew that about you all along." I compared myself to her, 8 years younger than I and a plastic surgeon, poet, artist. So, I have a similar question: how do I explain myself when I get a job? I tried to get a job at B&N over Christmas, and a manager said, "But you are an author" and although I tried to push him by saying I like books & people, he was, like, go home and write a book lady. So, another point is that I often look for things to distract me from my God given work, which is posted in my signature. Still, how do I explain myself? Men do not have the same absences from career that women do because they are not usually the caretakers of the children or in our cases, the parents. Love and Light, Lynn