Free Chicken Soup for the Woman's Soul by Jack Canfield

for years and ignored herself. Consequently she had never even considered what clothes looked good on her or how to apply her makeup.
    As I placed pretty colors close to her face, she began to blossom, though she didn’t seem to realize it. After applying the finishing touches of blush and lipstick to enhance her coloring, I invited her to view herself in the big cheval mirror. She took a long look, as if she were surveying a stranger, then edged closer and closer to her image. Finally, staring open-mouthed, she touched the mirror lightly. “Jeannie,” she motioned, “come here.” Drawing her daughter beside her, she pointed toward the image. “Jeannie, look at me. I’m beautiful!”
    The young woman smiled at the older woman in the mirror with tears in her eyes. “Yes, Mother, you have always been—beautiful.”
    Charlotte Ward

Angela’s Word
    When Angela was very young,
    Age two or three or so,
    Her mother and her father
    Taught her never to say NO.
    They taught her that she must agree
    With everything they said,
    And if she didn’t, she was spanked
    And sent upstairs to bed.
    So Angela grew up to be
    A most agreeable child;
    She was never angry
    And she was never wild;
    She always shared, she always cared,
    She never picked a fight,
    And no matter what her parents said,
    She thought that they were right.
    Angela the Angel did very well in school
    And, as you might imagine, she followed every rule;
    Her teachers said she was so well-bred,
    So quiet and so good,
    But how Angela felt inside
    They never understood.
    Angela had lots of friends
    Who liked her for her smile;
    They knew she was the kind of gal
    Who’d go the extra mile;
    And even when she had a cold
    And really needed rest,
    When someone asked her if she’d help
    She always answered Yes.
    When Angela was thirty-three, she was a lawyer’s wife.
    She had a home and family, and a nice suburban life.
    She had a little girl of four
    And a little boy of nine,
    And if someone asked her how she felt
    She always answered, “Fine.”
    But one cold night near Christmastime
    When her family was in bed,
    She lay awake as awful thoughts went spinning through her head;
    She didn’t know why, and she didn’t know how,
    But she wanted her life to end;
    So she begged Whoever put her here
    To take her back again.
    And then she heard, from deep inside,
    A voice that was soft and low;
    It only said a single word
    And the word it said was...NO.
    From that moment on, Angela knew
    Exactly what she had to do.
    Her life depended on that word,
    So this is what her loved ones heard:
    NO, I just don’t want to;
    NO, I don’t agree;
    NO, that’s yours to handle;
    NO, that’s wrong for me;
    NO, I wanted something else;
    NO, that hurt a lot!
    NO, I’m tired, and NO, I’m busy,
    And NO, I’d rather not!
    Well, her family found it shocking,
    Her friends reacted with surprise;
    But Angela was different, you could see it in her eyes;
    For they’ve held no meek submission
    Since that night three years ago
    When Angela the Angel
    Got permission to say NO.
    Today Angela’s a person first, then a mother and a wife.
    She knows where she begins and ends,
    She has a separate life.
    She has talents and ambitions,
    She has feelings, needs and goals.
    She has money in the bank and
    An opinion at the polls.
    And to her boy and girl she says,
    “It’s nice when we agree;
    But if you can’t say NO, you’ll never grow
    To be all you’re meant to be.
    Because I know I’m sometimes wrong
    And because I love you so,
    You’ll always be my angels
    Even when you tell me NO.”
    Barbara K. Bassett

“It’s imperative, Mrs. Carlson, that you put aside some time exclusively for yourself.”
    Reprinted with permission from William Canty.

Just Say Yes
    L ife is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.
    Helen Keller
    I’m a standup comic. I was working at a radio station in New York, doing the weather as this character called June East (Mae West’s long-lost sister). One day, a woman