The Resolute Woman

Category: families

  • A familiar room

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    resolutewoman
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    Kirsten and Dieter are “dearest friends,” but they have differences of opinion. They have had the same argument for years until it became “something like a familiar room where they met,” writes Emily St. John Mandel in her book Station Eleven. My husband and I have some of those familiar rooms. Next time we disagree…

  • How do you spell “love”?

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    Piglet asked: “How do you spell ‘love’?” “You don’t spell it,” said Pooh. “You feel it.” I found that quote on a Happy Wedding card from Hallmark Disney Winnie the Pooh, and I bought it and sent it to a lovely young couple. I didn’t go to their wedding, but, when I saw their photo…

  • Helping a friend

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    I’m the helper now. After I shattered my femur earlier this year, I had lots of people helping me—friends and family who called me often, cooked food for me and drove me to physical therapy. Now my good friend Lynn has a broken arm, and I recently spent a week driving her to the doctor,…

  • A family that could be any of ours

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    “Well, this is just great,” Jeannie told Denny, her brother. She stripped off her oven mitts and slammed them down next to her plate. “You waltz on out whenever you like; everything stops for Lord Denny. Everyone’s just thankful you stayed as long as you did; everyone’s falling all over themselves because it’s such a…

  • A state of tolerance

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    “There are few prophets in the world; few sublimely beautiful women; few heroes,” says George Eliot in her novel Adam Bede. “I can’t afford to give all my love and reverence to such rarities: I want a great deal of those feelings for my every-day fellowmen, especially for the few in the foreground…whose faces I…

  • Delighted by flawed people

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    People with character “possess an impressive inner cohesion…get things done…have achieved a certain depth,” says David Brooks in his book The Road to Character. Brooks lists other important qualities that distinguish people with character, but I really like this attribute. “They just seem delighted by the flawed people around them.” –Joy

  • Western civilization?

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    resolutewoman
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    When he came to England in the 1930s for talks on Indian self-rule, Mahatma Gandhi was asked what he thought of Western Civilization, says Dr. Sue Johnson in her book Love Sense. “I think it would be a very good idea,” Gandhi replied. “Do we judge (our state of human social development) and organization by…

  • Barely domestic

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    I’m behind on my spring cleaning. Of course, I have a good excuse this year—my broken leg. But, this is not the first year I’ve been behind. That’s why I appreciate this quote from Phyllis Diller. “My husband says the only thing domestic about me is that I was born in this country.” I found…

  • Joy and well-being

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    Relationships are the strongest single predictor of joy and well-being, says Dr. Sue Johnson in her book Love Sense. “Ever since social scientists started systematically studying happiness, it has been resoundingly clear that deep and stable relationships make for happy and stable individuals.”

  • Someone a little nicer

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    “What’s the best political advice you have ever received?” Michael Duffy asked Barbara Bush, wife of the first President Bush. “Be yourself. Well, maybe someone a little nicer,” answered Barbara Bush in an interview in the June 15, 2015, issue of Time magazine.