I’m Not Perfect and It’s Okay, by Dolores Ayotte (Tate Publishing, 2008)
I love the cover design of this book – all these uniquely-marked balloons, all in different places but each adding to the scene.
Dolores Ayotte is a former teacher who loves finding ways to share what she’s learned. Her first book, I’m Not Perfect and It’s Okay, is one of those ways, and in it Dolores reveals the lessons that helped her move out of a serious depression.
I’m Not Perfect and It’s Okay offers “thirteen steps to a happier self,” and they’re all simple, down-to-earth things that we somehow overlook when we’re in distress. Appropriately enough, the first step is learning to love: oneself, others and God.
The author contends that without a healthy sense of self-worth we can’t find emotional healing. Indeed, why would we think we deserve it? If, she says, we can love ourselves as we are, we can then begin to change those things in us that we don’t like.
Dolores speaks of relying on a quiet “inner voice” and it’s clear that this is no mystic “spirit guide” – it’s the Holy Spirit whispering into His child’s life. Healing is, after all, His specialty.
Other key themes in the book are simplicity, relationships, forgiveness, laughter, silence, money management (“live below your yearnings”), wisdom and communication.
I wasn’t comfortable with the book’s reference to God as “him/her” although I’m aware that the Bible does attribute both paternal and maternal characteristics to our Creator. I did find the ingredients in this “Baker’s Dozen” recipe for a better life to be pleasant, helpful and encouraging.
I’m Not Perfect and It’s Okay is an easy book to read, gentle on the spirit, that feels like a personal letter just for you. It includes many inspirational quotes that have encouraged the author over the years. The book comes with a code allowing free download of the text in audio format from the publisher.
To learn more about Canadian author Dolores Ayotte, you can visit her website. is available through her site and also at Amazon.ca and Amazon.com.