In her art studio, Diane Sherman is surrounded by a vibrant, eclectic collection of hanging canvas paintings and stacks of art journals. She sits in her "Catholic Schoolgirl Chair," which she nicknamed because of its cracking, aged wood and the maneuverable desk attached to its side. It reminds Sherman of Catholic school and her younger self.
This snapshot is emblematic of Sherman's lifelong journey to shed inner criticism, grief and shame, and to blossom into the most authentic, unapologetic version of herself.
For her latest project, In Borrowed Shoes, Sherman shares over 100 personal stories threaded together to form a vulnerable and cohesive narrative of her path to self-acceptance. She hopes the collection resonates with others, and that they process moments from their own lives while reading it.
"With this book, I wrote it so that people don't feel so alone," she says. "I've pulled back the curtain on how so many of us feel in different moments."
Sherman specifically shares 108 individual short stories in In Borrowed Shoes to mirror the practice of counting mala beads. A mala is a sacred necklace from Buddhist and Hindu tradition, held during meditation to promote focus, and while chanting mantras to keep count.
Sherman has used the mala for over 25 years throughout her own spiritual journey, so integrating it into her book felt fitting and even more personal.
"I wanted this book to be 108 moments of a life strung together that could be contemplated and reflected upon," she says. "It's the layperson's reality of a spiritual journey."
In one of her favorite stories from the memoir, called "Becoming the Priest," Sherman recounts a time when her 10-year-old self led a Catholic Mass for her parents in the backyard of their San Francisco Bay Area home.
"As a young person, I was always very spiritual," she says. "I tried Catholicism, but it didn't make sense to me."
She goes on to elaborate that her spiritual roots stemmed from losing her father when she was 7.
"Something cracked in me," she says. "The grief and loss of losing my father was so intense. I really felt the pain of that loss... I had no way to process it."
In Borrowed Shoes recounts this experience and distills other heavy subjects, but it also details life's triumphs. It tells the stories of Sherman beginning her yogic journey, trekking mountains in Tibet, and swaying her hips to salsa music in Costa Rica. It also joins her in the quiet moments of life, the ones that we don't often pay attention to unless we're incredibly mindful.
In another of her favorite stories, "Potato Chips," Sherman describes her love of the delicious salty treat and the sensory experience of eating them.
"Any moment, if we pay really close attention, has so much for you — like your tea, your chocolate [and] your dog," she says.
In Borrowed Shoes is written in a unique style for a memoir. Along with its segmentation into 108 stories, Sherman's writing implements the creative wordplay of poetry and yet maintains the same frankness and descriptiveness as her prose vignettes.
Even as a writer for over 40 years, Sherman admits, "I don't have a word for what these are."
At a young age, Sherman wrote stories and lost herself in fantasy worlds. As a youngster, her dream was to be a journalist, just like both of her parents were. Her father wrote for the Los Angeles Times, and her mother wrote for Time Life Magazine.
Sherman attended Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism for a brief time and discovered she hated news writing and its more rigid format. She wanted to infuse her sense of self and personal experiences into the pieces she wrote. After receiving a bachelor's degree in art history from UCLA and, later, a master's in arts and consciousness from John F. Kennedy University, Sherman gradually grew into the interdisciplinary artist she is now.
"I'm a journalist of the inner world," she says.
In addition to being a writer, Sherman is a yoga instructor and creativity coach. She offers classes to help students release their inner critics and complete their creative projects, including a yearlong creative process immersion, with the next session beginning in February 2023.
"I feel like my mission on the planet is just to help us all become ourselves," she says.
In Borrowed Shoes is simply an extension of that mission.
"I think 'in borrowed shoes' usually has the connotation of 'you can't really know what someone else's life is like unless you walk in their shoes,'" she says. "I liked that it has that sort of metaphoric meaning, but I also felt that we borrow the 'shoes,' [or] other paradigms of thought, until we get to our own 'shoes'."
Sherman's memoir is an opportunity to slip into a pair of borrowed shoes and take a few steps alongside her until you arrive to find your very own "shoes." ♦
Find In Borrowed Shoes locally at Auntie's Bookstore; online from Amazon (Kindle and print) and Balboa Press. Learn more about Diane Sherman, including her upcoming creative process immersion workshops and an East Coast book tour, at dianesherman.net.
