This has happened before. Something is printed and I see only its imperfections. But slowly I become proud that exists at all.

The Woman Who Values Herself is about 90 percent of what I envisioned when I set out to print a pocket-sized book of 31 affirmations for women, each illustrated with a line drawing by Sheila Kennedy. I suspect it is just as a grown child is always about 90 percent of what a parent hoped for. And of course the parent dwells on the 10 percent. What's right:

• size
• cover color (love the green! There is no name for such a green!)
• most of the drawings
• the fact that this book exists at all
• the kindness shown to me by all the blurb contributors
• that this is Sheila's first book and she's thrilled and she should be, she is awesome
• that this book might be of help or comfort to somebody somewhere someday
• pricing ($10; thank God I asked for advice!)

What's wrong:

• They didn't add one of my corrections
• The paper is thick and I'd hoped it would be opaque, but it's not
• The back cover with its three colors looks better to me than the front with its two colors
• They didn't vertically center the blurbs on the back; I mean, it's okay but it's not perfect!
• Yes, the spine is 1/4 inch wide just as I wanted, and admittedly it is the thinnest possible size for a perfect (glued) binding, but it drives me wild when the microscopic printing on some of them is off by a millionth of an inch

That said, it is time to start getting proud of it, just as a parent finally becomes proud of simply having passed along the gift of life.