The Resolute Woman

Category: holidays

  • Advice from Benjamin Franklin

    —

    by

    resolutewoman
    in ,

    If you’re making new year’s resolutions—and we decided years ago that we prefer to make our resolutions in the spring, here’s some good advice from Ben Franklin. “Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors and let every year find you a better person,” Franklin once said.

  • Welcome the new year

    —

    by

    resolutewoman
    in ,

    I’m looking forward to a new year, and I hope you are looking forward to 2017, too. I’ve always liked this quote by Rainer Maria Rilke: “And now we welcome the new year. Full of things that have never been.” –Joy

  • The holiest of holidays

    —

    by

    resolutewoman
    in ,

    We celebrate Christmas with presents, friends and family, with song and story. We also celebrate in our memories, in silence, in our hearts. “The holiest of all holidays are those kept by ourselves in silence and apart—the secret anniversaries of the heart,” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow said. I found this quote in a magazine in the…

  • Like a child

    —

    by

    resolutewoman
    in , ,

    “There is nothing sadder in this world than to awake Christmas morning and not be a child,” Erma Bombeck once said. We wish you childlike wonder this holiday season—and love and joy and hope in your heart.

  • The best presents

    —

    by

    resolutewoman
    in , ,

    “Maybe Christmas, the Grinch thought, doesn’t come from a store.” –Dr. Seuss We wish you the best presents of Christmas—friends and family around you—and joy and hope and love inside you.

  • It’s a feeling

    —

    by

    resolutewoman
    in , ,

    “Christmas isn’t a season,” Edna Ferber once said. “It’s a feeling.” During this Christmas season, we wish you joy and hope and love.

  • The Puritans didn’t like Christmas

    —

    by

    resolutewoman
    in

    In 1659, the Puritan government of the Massachusetts Bay Colony actually banned Christmas. The Congregationalists, Methodists and Quakers at various times also tried to de-emphasize or eliminate the observance of Christmas, says David Forbes in his book Christmas—A Candid History. Presbyterian minister Samuel Davies denounced the holiday as a day of “sinning, sexuality, luxury and…

  • The noblest gift

    —

    by

    resolutewoman
    in , ,

    Too much food, too many things on my to-do list, too many very special activities. This is the most delightful season. But sometimes it seems that there is too much delight all at once. Euripides reminds us: “Moderation, the noblest gift of Heaven.” And, I remind myself that I can pick and choose from the…

  • What I don’t need

    —

    by

    resolutewoman
    in ,

    “How many things there are which I do not need!” Socrates once said. That’s a good quote for me to remember when I am buying presents for my family and friends. There are many things that I really don’t need—and many things that my friends and family really don’t need. I found Socrate’s seasonal advice…

  • A Christmas tradition

    —

    by

    resolutewoman
    in , ,

    Christmas is a wonderful holiday, full of meaning. But, it is a busy time. “I get started early,” I told my husband a couple of days ago, “but I always end up behind.” It’s a Christmas tradition. I always feel a bit overwhelmed. How can I focus on the meaning of the season and avoid…