the sensitive soul

i found this quote at Victoria Gaines' Light for the Writer's Soul.

“Everyone with an artistic temperament has been told at some point in his or her life to develop a thicker skin. That’s nonsense! The world doesn’t need more thick-skinned people. It needs more people who are sensitive and tender.” ~ Rory Noland

i know i've had people tell me this over the course of my life: "Get a thicker skin. You're too sensitive." i know there are times when i should have a thicker skin, especially when someone makes a less than positive statement about something i've written or something i've said. i know my life would be easier if i weren't so sensitive. i wouldn't crash and burn as much as i do if i could just ignore negative comments.

try as i might, i can't help it most of the time. it's the way i've always been and changing is hard. now i see that maybe i don't have to change, or not as much as i thought i did. or maybe i need to learn to take the negative comments to God and not let them bother me. he's the first and last word on who i am. what other people think of me shouldn't matter.