I don't remember exactly when it dawned on me that nothing in my life goes to waste, that anything that has ever affected me deeply might someday be an empathic connection to what someone is telling me. It was more than an insight; it meant that there was meaning in my own suffering, that anything that I have lived through might someday be redeemed if it enables me to help someone else.

— Jean Shinoda Bolen, Close to the Bone