Author: resolutewoman
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The wonderful extravagances of marriage
We talked about Sandra Cisneros and how she explains about family stories and connections in our last blog post. We also like Cisneros discussion of the “wonderful extravagances” of marriage in her novel Caramelo. After the “little grandfather” dies, his wife thinks about what she misses. “Everyone complains about marriage,” Cisneros writes to explain the…
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The awful grandmother
In her semi-autobiographical novel Caramelo, Sandra Cisneros tells the multigenerational story of a Mexican-American family. Cisneros once explained that she originally just wanted to explain the life of her father. However, to explain her father’s life, she also had to explain the life of her “awful grandmother,” who was her father’s bossy mother. And, she…
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The death of Anthony Shadid
When I turned on my computer to my Yahoo news page and saw the picture of Anthony Shadid and read that he had died at 43, I was at first shocked and then deeply saddened. Anthony, of course, was The New York Times foreign correspondent who died of a fatal asthma attack in Syria. He…
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Winning the food wars
During February of last year, I was jubilant. I had survived a Christmas filled with rich chocolates and pecan pie, mashed potatoes with gravy and pine-nut dressing. I had gained a few pounds, but, by February, the scales indicated that I weighed exactly what I wanted to weigh. Plus, I felt great. After years on…
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“Resilient optimism”
Laura Hillenbrand tells the story of Louis Zamperini in her book Unbroken—A World War II Story of Survival, Reislience and Redemption. Louie’s story is incredible. It starts as a tale of an untamable boy who gained notoriety from his pranks and thefts. Louie was a runner at the Olympics in Berlin in 1936 before he…
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Depressed? Or, happy?
Are you feeling depressed or happy? Or, neither? Or, something in between depressed and happy? Are you feeling joyful, cheerful, lucky, blessed, satisfied or content? Or, are you feeling sad, gloomy, somber, pensive, blue or troubled? Are you feeling optimistic or pessimistic? Some people act as if they’re happy all the time. But it’s unrealistic…
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Acting out of character
Introverts seem to be getting a lot of attention recently. We read a newspaper article about the advantages of being an introvert and discussed it in our last blog post, and we also read Bryan Walsh’s article “The Upside of Being an Introvert (and Why Extroverts Are Overrated)” in the February 6, 2012, issue of…
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Why it’s okay to be an introvert
We often praise teamwork and prefer the life-of-the-party to the loner. But Susan Cain, writing in an article in the January 29, 2012, issue of The Dallas Morning News, reminds us that being an introvert can offer some distinct advantages. Cain is the author of Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t…
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Yes, it was a perfect afternoon
You may remember that I wrote recently about a perfect January afternoon I spent with my daughter, Mary Elizabeth, at the horse rescue where Mary Elizabeth volunteers. The perfect afternoon ended with a car accident. We weren’t hurt, but our car was damaged so much that it couldn’t be repaired. The questions that I asked…
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Lily’s rules for housekeeping
In her second book Half Broke Horses, best-selling author Jeannette Walls tells the story of her grandmother Lily Casey Smith, who was at times “a cowgirl, horse trainer, mustang breaker, jockey, airplane pilot and Chicago flapper as well as mother and teacher who helped her husband run” a huge ranch. Lily was a character and…