Why do people cling to their hateful ideas? James Baldwin once explained, “I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.”
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Let’s get angry
by resolutewoman on May 5, 2022 in change, character, resolute-women
We have good reasons to be angry—abortion, Ukraine, the pandemic, climate change. “Anger is often totally appropriate,” writer Roxane Gay says. “It can be incredibly productive.” I heard Roxane Gay speaking on the PBS evening news. –Joy
Little bits of good
by resolutewoman on March 19, 2022 in change, character, peace
“Do your little bit of good where you are,” Archbishop Desmon Tutu once said. “It’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.” I found this quote in a book called The Way of Peace—Readings for a Harmonious Life compiled by editors Michael Leach, Doris Goodnough and Maria Angelini. –Joy
What if?
by resolutewoman on March 12, 2022 in change, character, happiness
What if you had made a different choice? What if you had taken a different path? What if? In a review of the book Home is Not a Country, Nayantara Dutta writes that the book “felt most memorable because of how it explored this tension between our fascination with the what-ifs, and how they distract […]
The heart of empathy
by resolutewoman on March 10, 2022 in character, families, friends, Uncategorized
What is empathy? Christopher Myers, in his introduction for Home Is Not a Country, offers one answer. “It seems to me,” he says, “that this knowledge—that you could have just as easily been any one of a hundred other people—is at the heart of empathy. It’s the realization that every person you meet, or see […]
Take a trip
by resolutewoman on February 24, 2022 in change, character, Uncategorized
I’m escaping! I am tired of “vegetating in one little corner of the earth.” I am planning trips again—and I hope the crazy COVID numbers stay lower and this pandemic doesn’t interfere with my plans. I agree with Mark Twain, who once said: “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness, and many of our […]
Trying to try
by resolutewoman on February 19, 2022 in change, character, resolute-women, Uncategorized
In her new book Good Enough, Kate Bowler writes, “Trying feels harder than it did before.” “We are trying,” she explains. “Well, we are trying to try….We will have to find enough momentum to reach for a life that is never perfect, but good enough.”
Be positive!?
by resolutewoman on February 12, 2022 in advice, character, goals, optimism, Uncategorized
Test negative. Be positive. I had my patience tested. I’m negative. I heard both of these lines during a Zoom meeting recently. Since then, I’m determined to be more positive—and more patient. –Joy
Comic and uplifting
by resolutewoman on February 10, 2022 in balance, change, character
Life is “by turns crushing and restorative, busy and boring, comic and uplifting,” writes Kathryn Schulz, author of Lost & Found: A Memoir.
What you do
by resolutewoman on January 20, 2022 in character, confidence
What did you do yesterday? What are you doing today? What do you plan to do tomorrow? “What we do is more important than what we say or what we say we believe,” author and activist bella hooks once said.
What’s this site about?
We wrote our book and we’re writing our blog because we were frustrated. We were frustrated with experts who try to tell people how to lose weight, raise their children and improve their marriages—and be a success—in 10 easy steps. In three weeks. In one book.
Our self-help book and blog are for grownups—for women who know that there are no easy answers to life’s complex problems—that finding solutions requires some self-knowledge and self-searching and hard work.
We want to help women discover their own answers and live with them as their guide. We want to help you and other women Help Yourself!
We write about making changes and also about many other issues important to women, including families, friends, work and food.
