Category: resolute-women
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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…
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Resolute Woman on the ranch
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.…
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We all have texture
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…
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Resolute Women of the Year
We’re nominating Ranna, Fayteen’s daughter, for Resolute Woman of the Year. Since the middle of January, she has battled breast cancer with seven surgeries and a number of complications. She has had bad days, of course, but she has continued to be a brave, optimistic fighter. Even more amazing, throughout her illness, Ranna has continued…
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Some questions to ask yourself
If you’re still searching and asking yourself that essential question—Who am I?, we offer some other questions to ponder. Consider your time thinking about these questions and your answers a way to begin the next lap in your journey, a guide to help you define yourself—or to redefine or fine-tune yourself. What makes me different?…
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Who am I?
In our last blog post, we talked about how someone can become a Resolute Woman—and concluded that we don’t have any simple, easy answers . However, we both agree that the solution begins with self-knowledge. An essential question is: Who am I? This information from our book—which we plan to publish next year—may be helpful. Who…
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How do you become resolute?
A friend recently asked Fayteen: “How do you become a Resolute Woman?” That’s an important question. We wish we had a short, simple answer. We don’t. Remember that we believe that there are no simple answers. We’re frustrated with experts who think they can tell us how to lose weight, raise our children and be…
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Lunch with Ranna
Fayteen and I had lunch with Ranna recently. Lunch with friends is always pleasant, but I usually don’t stop to consider what a wonderful blessing it is to have good friends with whom I can share interesting conversation and delicious food. However, we did stop to count our blessings at this lunch. Ranna has been…
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Some advice from Gloria Steinem
We recently saw the HBO documentary “Gloria Steinem: In Her Own Words,” which tells the story of a remarkable woman. Gloria Steinem spent her teenage years taking care of her mentally ill mother in Toledo, Ohio, founded Ms. Magazine in 1971, became a spokesperson for feminists and married for the first time at age 66.…
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A Resolute Woman in Afghanistan
When the Taliban seized control of Kabul, Afghanistan, in 1996, Kamilia Sidiqi suddenly found herself responsible for supporting her five siblings. Although she had just earned a certificate from the Sayed Jamaluddin Teacher Training Institute, she couldn’t get a job teaching. Girls weren’t allowed even to attend school. In the book The Dressmaker of Khair…