TVC15 & Mrsmuzz-- Thank you so much for your kind words, but if anyone disagrees and wants me to keep my postings shorter, don't hesitate to say. I'm sure I can find a balance.

A few days ago I said that I would pass along the advice the women in my book shared last summer at the request of a journalist who was writing an article entitled "Secrets to a Richer Life." It's too much to digest all at once, so I'll give it to you a little at a time. The following piece of advice is from Linda Bach, who became a medical doctor at age 50.

She writes: "Tom Conway, my sixth grade teacher in Springfield, Ohio, said to me: 'You can do whatever you decide to do in life.' His words gave me the confidence in my abilities to be able to reach for the stars—in my case, to go to medical school. His belief in me helped me to ignore all the people telling me from age 12 on that girls were nurses and boys were doctors; to ignore male classmates in my pre-med courses who thought I must be dumb since I was a blonde; to ignore the professors in college who said I would get married, have babies and never practice medicine, and that a precious medical school slot would be wasted on me; and, finally, to ignore my own doubts that perhaps a 46-year-old brain was really too old to learn the volumes of material necessary to get through medical school and that a 46-year-old body could not sustain the insult of multiple sleepless nights-on-call. These words, given to me at such a young and formative age, become part of the fabric of my being.”

Isn't it incredible how one sentence--a statement of praise, a question--can change one's life? I'm curious as to whether any of you have had this experience.