The Resolute Woman

Author: resolutewoman

  • Resolute Woman on the ranch

    —

    by

    resolutewoman
    in ,

    Lily Casey Smith, author Jeannette Walls’ grandmother and the heroine in Walls’ true-life novel Half Broke Horses, rode 500 miles to get to her first teaching job.  On a horse. Alone. At age 15. When World War I ended and she lost that teaching job, she returned to her parents’ ranch. But not for long.…

  • We all have texture

    —

    by

    resolutewoman
    in , ,

    Jeannette Walls, the best-selling author of The Glass Castle, told the audience at a recent benefit for The Stewpot about dating a man from a family of privilege. When she revealed to him that she has burn scars from a childhood accident, he said: “Don’t ever apologize for your scars. They show you survived.” Walls…

  • Jeannette Walls shares her secrets

    —

    by

    resolutewoman
    in , ,

    I recently heard Jeannette Walls tell the riveting story she uses in the opening of her best-selling book The Glass Castle. Walls spoke at a benefit luncheon for The Stewpot, which helps feed the homeless in Dallas. If you’ve read the book, you’ll remember that Walls, a New York reporter who was writing about the…

  • Why it’s so hard to keep those pounds off

    —

    by

    resolutewoman
    in

    Tara Parker-Pope, an editor at The New York Times, provides some bad news about why we lose weight and then gain it back again. In an article in the Dallas Morning News, January 8, 2012, Parker-Pope reports that researchers are finding that, long after people had lost weight, their bodies “were acting as if they were…

  • Take care of yourself, too

    —

    by

    resolutewoman
    in , ,

    When I first learned that my daughter Ranna would have to go back to the hospital, I thought first about myself. “Oh, no,” I said to myself. “You can’t go back to the hospital. I can’t handle any more doctors or hospitals.” Then, of course, I felt guilty. I was thinking about myself, and I…

  • Is it still a happy new year?

    —

    by

    resolutewoman
    in , ,

    I had been telling myself that my daughter Ranna’s medical problems were ending and that this year would be the start of her healing. I still am convinced that this year will be a new beginning for Ranna. But the new beginning is not going to happen immediately. Ranna already has spent six days in…

  • “Happy in spite of”

    —

    by

    resolutewoman
    in , ,

    I must admit that the automobile accident I described in our last blog post and the dismal reality of the cost of a new car have thrown me into a January, beginning-of-the-year, end-of-the-holidays depression. Everyone gets depressed sometimes. And, sometimes, only time is the cure. I am reminded, however, of one of the lessons from…

  • A perfect afternoon

    —

    by

    resolutewoman
    in , ,

     I picked a perfect afternoon to visit the horse rescue where my daughter, Mary Elizabeth, volunteers. Even though it was January, it was sunny and the temperature climbed to 65. I walked slowly, deliberately, encumbered by my borrowed mud boots, which were just a bit too big, around the ranch, stopping to admire the patience…

  • Time to make a resolution

    —

    by

    resolutewoman
    in ,

    I couldn’t resist opening the People magazine I found in the grocery store. Pictured on the cover were two beautiful, smiling, slender women. One had lost 131 pounds, and the other had lost 114 pounds. The headline proclaimed: “How they did it. Half their size!” The photos and the stories were amazing. One woman Natalie…

  • Seize the moment with joy and love

    —

    by

    resolutewoman
    in ,

    One week before Christmas Eve, I attended a celebration of life for a wonderful friend, Sharon, whom I had known since 1978. She was 56 when she died. When I looked at the photograph of Sharon on the program for her service and saw the twinkle in her eyes and her warm smile, I felt…