The Resolute Woman

Author: resolutewoman

  • Kind, but strong

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    resolutewoman
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    Jacinda Adern, New Zealand’s youngest ever prime minister, is resigining. After 5-1/2 years as the country’s leader, she concluded, ” “I hope I leave New Zealanders with a belief that you can be kind, but strong, emphatic, but decisive, optimistic, but focused.”

  • Catastrophizing

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    My neighbor took a photo of a bobcat one morning recently—at the house across the street from ours. Yikes! We overreacted—and worried about our dog Jack—and all of the smaller dogs and the cats in the neighborhood. Disaster! However, my friend Mary, a retired biologist, didn’t panic. “How exciting,” she said. “Not very many people…

  • Who is an American?

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    resolutewoman
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    Cody Keenan, in his book  Grace—President Obama and Ten Days in the Battle for America, remembers when he told President Obama that Rudy Giuliani had said that the president doesn’t love this country. President Obama replied to his speechwriter: “Who gets to decide what it means to be an American? Who gets to be the…

  • Birthdays are okay

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    Miss Manners says it’s okay to grow older. In the January 31, 2023, issue of The Dallas Morning News, Miss Manners comments: “It is surely one of the silliest prejudices in modern society that growing older is considered so unfortunate a condition that it is supposed to be a compliment to pretend that it did…

  • Easy answers and half-truths

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    A friend sent me these words recently—from a Franciscan blessing for justice and peace. May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, hard hearts, half-truths and superficial relationships. May God bless youso that you may live from deep within your heartwhere God’s Spirit dwells. May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression and…

  • Trust in the light

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    My confession. I wrote earlier this month about my resolutions for 2023 in general terms—such as get organized, speak up, eat healthier. Of course, I am violating the first rule of writing resolutions. These resolutions are too general. Not specific enough. However, I have been in a COVID fog since December 28. Now that I…

  • Happiness?

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    resolutewoman
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    What is happiness? According to the experts interviewed for an article in the January 16/January 23 issue of Time magazine, happiness is a “cocktail” of ingredients—a sense of control and autonomy over one’s life, being guided my meaning and purpose, and connecting with others. How do you define happiness?

  • How dare they?

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    Vice President Harris says we must fight for a woman’s right to control her body. She spoke on January 22, 2023—the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision in Roe v Wade, the decision that guaranteed a woman’s right to abortion. She spoke in protest of a recent Supreme Court decision that took away that…

  • Let your actions speak

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    resolutewoman
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    Beto O’Rourke is now teaching a class at the University of Chicago and writing email messages to people like me. Beto’s advice: “Keep the faith, keep up the fight and let our action be the antidote to any despair that tempts us.” –Joy

  • Speak up–and do something

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    resolutewoman
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    I mentioned that one of my New Year’s resolutions is to speak up. The Rev. Bernice King, Martin Luther King’s youngest daughter, reminds me that speaking up isn’t enough. Quoting MLK isn’t enough. We need to change our ways. We need to act to make this country a better place. MLK challenged us “to change…