Gail Sheehy Quotes
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It was so naive to think that there was nothing interesting that happened after 55. Come on, there's a whole second adulthood!
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Stress overload makes us stupid. Solid research proves it. When we get overstressed, it creates a nasty chemical soup in our brains that makes it hard to pull out of the anxious depressive spiral.
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If every day is an awakening, you will never grow old. You will just keep growing.
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The dream for many millennial women is to make a difference as social or political entrepreneurs. They are using the social media and marketing tools they have mastered to empower less fortunate women and direct them onto career tracks that women have traditionally avoided, like science and technology.
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Growth demands a temporary surrender of security.
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I found that female pathfinders generally integrate characteristics commonly associated with being women - like the capacity to be intimate - with 'male' ones like ambition and courage.
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Would that there were an award for people who come to understand the concept of enough. Good enough. Successful enough. Thin enough. Rich enough. Socially responsible enough. When you have self-respect, you have enough.
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In the first phase of shock over, say, your mortgage being called in or your job washed out, it's essential to engage with others and share the fear, release the feelings, do fun things to take your mind off it.
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No one can control the aging process or the trajectory of illness.
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I'm a liberal, but I think there's so much that the private sector can do and does do.
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In the case of my husband, we found that facing a life-threatening illness prodded us to make a dramatic change in our lives.
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The feminist spirit still lives! It shows most boldly among younger women from the millennial generation.
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It seems like, to me, somewhere between 30 and 35 is a really, really good time to turn your eggs into babies.
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To be tested is good. The challenged life may be the best therapist.
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One of the ways we women often handicap ourselves is thinking that once we've made a decision or a commitment, we can't change.
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It is a paradox that as we reach out prime, we also see there is a place where it finishes.
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Adapting to our Second Adulthood is not all about the money. It requires thinking about how to find a new locus of identity or how to adjust to a spouse who stops working and who may loll, enjoying coffee and reading the paper online while you're still commuting.
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All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter into another!
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If you begin to think you are solely responsible for keeping your loved one alive and safe, you will eventually find yourself playing God. This phase can develop into an unhealthy, codependent relationship.
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There is no more defiant denial of one man's ability to possess one woman exclusively than the prostitute who refuses to redeemed.
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My husband, Clay Felker, died 17 years after his first cancer due to secondary conditions that developed from treatment.
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Most women have learned a great deal about how to set goals for our First Adulthood and how to roll with the punches when we hit a rough passage. But we're less prepared for our Second Adulthood as we approach life after retirement, where there are no fixed entrances or exits, and lots of sand into which it is easy to bury our heads.
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Very few women manage to have it all; certainly not all at once.