Inspiration: "Little Women"

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott has always been on my list of books to read ever since I saw the 1994 movie starring Winona Ryder, Christian Bale, and Susan Sarandon. This holiday season I resolved to read the behemoth 600-some-odd-pages. It took a little while to get used to the rhythm of the writing, but I am glad that I made the commitment to read it.  As I made my way through, I found several quotes that called out to me and helped encourage me in my journey to learn to "simply make do." 

"Once upon a time, there were four girls, who had enough to eat and drink and wear, a good many comforts and pleasures, kind friends and parents who loved them dearly, and yet they were not contented. These girls were anxious to be good, and made many excellent resolutions, but they did not keep them very well, and were constantly saying, 'If only we had this,' or, 'If only we could do that,' quite forgetting how much they already had, and how many pleasant things they could actually do. So they asked an old woman what spell they could use to make them happy, and she said, 'Whenever you feel discontented, think over your blessings and be grateful." - Marmee

"Well, I am happy, and I won't fret; but it does seem as if the more one gets the more one wants, doesn't it?" - Meg

"You laugh at me when I say I want to be a lady, but I mean a true gentlewoman in mind and manners, and I try to do it as far as I know how. I can't explain exactly, but I want to be above the little meannesses and follies and faults that spoil so many women." - Amy

"Now, if she had been the heroine of a moral storybook, she ought at this period of her life to have become quite saintly, renounced the world, and gone about doing good in a mortified bonnet, with tracts in her pocket. But, you see, Jo wasn't a heroine, she was only a struggling human girl like hundreds of others, and she just acted out her nature, being sad, cross, listless, or energetic, as the mood suggested. It's highly virtuous to say we'll be good, but we can't do it all at once, and it takes a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull all together before some of us even get our feet set in the right way."