It takes a life time of healing from someone else's expectations and judgments imposed upon us. I'm glad you found healing and forged your own path. May you continue to find joy and growth in your own path.

I had a relationship of similar dichotomies with Mother. I even let her push me to start college at a fundamentalist evangelical Southern Baptist college studying to be a gospel singer — she had always dreamed of being a Country Gospel star herself. Of course, I couldn't live her dream — I left after one semester of misery with abysmal grades.

I have always been an artist. Lord knows, she did pretty much all she could to quash the artist in me, even to destroying some of my art journals. But, it's not something that can be easily erased. As I always say, "Art isn't something I do. It's who I am."