As beautiful women we deserve to have beautiful lives. Lives filled with items of intrinsic
beauty and filled with items that are beautiful for the fond memories they evoke.
Living a beautiful life doesn’t mean having extravagant baubles and bangles (although
there is no harm there).  A beautiful life is an attitude. It may entail buying a shiny white
Jeep just because you want to or buying a shiny golden pothos with its heart-shaped
leaves for your office. (Anybody can keep one alive and they thrive on artificial light.)
Or a beautiful life may mean using your grandmother’s monogrammed, silver hand-
mirror at your dressing table. Or making sure all the dishes are washed, dried, and put
away every evening so you can have your morning coffee in a peaceful, clean space.
A beautiful life means being pampered with a haircut every six weeks instead of
‘whenever.’ Or Sunday afternoon trips to the main library — to get lost in the stacks of
home décor books or mysteries. A beautiful life means clearing off your work space
every night; smoothing your weary body with divine-smelling lotion after a warm shower;
and having personalized stationery for handwritten notes to friends.
One can live a beautiful life surrounded by lovely material things or by creating lovely
life-sustaining rituals. Try this: stop what you are doing at 11 a.m. to settle in with a cup
of hot tea served in a thin china cup accompanied by a crisp gingersnap cookie. (The
British call this ‘elevenses.’)  Maybe your idea of luxury is having heavenly dreams
under a plump, feather-filled comforter for your bed.  Buy it. Or, maybe you run to the
more practical idea of having a pair of scissors in every room in the house so you don’t
have to go searching every time you want to clip a coupon or a loose thread. Buy as
many as you need.  You don’t have to be To The Manor Born to have a beautiful life.
You just have to pay attention. This year, my dears, it really is all about YOU.
— Lucy Pritchett

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