Читать книгу Where Would I Be Without You? - B.J. Gallagher - Страница 7

can be exactly like me.

Sometimes even I have trouble doing it.

—Tallulah Bankhead, actress

Other women have taught me much about the critical role that attitude plays—in good times and in bad. Most importantly, they taught me that I can choose my own attitude! it’s not something immutable in my DNA over which I have no control. My attitude is not cast in concrete— in any given moment, I can choose to change it.

Attitude is everything.

One of my mother’s favorite sayings was

“MIND OVER MATTER.”

She invoked this mantra whenever I was whining or complaining (as kids often do). “Mind over matter” was an all-purpose panacea for assorted and sundry problems. Feeling lonely? Instead of focusing on your aloneness as a problem, view it as an opportunity to do something that requires solitude, like writing or cleaning your closet. Make a gratitude list and see all the wonderful things you have going for you!

What do you hang on the walls of your mind?

—Eve Arnold, photographer

LIFe IS raw maTerIaL.

WE ARE ARTISANS.

We can sculpt our existence into something beautiful,

or debase it into ugliness. It’s in our hands.

—Cathy Better, poet and writer

I WENT TO VISIT MY AUNTIE EL IN SEDONA A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO, AND OVER LUNCH ONE AFTERNOON, I COMMENTED ON HER BEAUTIFUL COLLECTION OF HATS.

She smiled knowingly and leaned in to whisper something so that her husband wouldn’t overhear: “I wear these stunning hats so people will look at my face and not my big tush!” she confided.

And she was right—that’s exactly what people did.

NOTHING CONVEYS THE RIGHT ATTITUDE LIKE A GREAT HAT!

IF YOU OBEY ALL THE RULES

you miss all the fun.

—Katharine Hepburn, actress

What separates an ordinary woman

from an extraordinary one?

The belief that she is ordinary.

—Jody Williams, Nobel Peace Prize winner

YOU too, have the power to recreate yourself over and over again, as many times as you want. You can try on new identities much like you might try on a new coat, or experiment with a new hairstyle. The freedom you have as a new woman living in the western hemisphere at this point in history means you can be a tomboy, a scholar, a vamp, a pastor, a cynic, a party girl, a homebody, a hermit, or whatever else strikes your fancy. Your only limit is your creativity, imagination, and energy.

There is no cosmetic for beauty like