AND THE WINNER IS...

JESSICA! I swear on my Girl Scout's Honor, John was half asleep when I made him stick his hand in the hat to draw a name, so there is no way we showed any favoritism - it just pays to comment often!

Never were any truer words spoken than "You can't please everyone," but that certainly hasn't stopped most of us from trying, and failing, over and over and over. The first and most important step along the path towards good-lifeitude is recognizing the futility of being a "people pleaser" and determining instead to live an "authentic" life - to uncover all the talents and passions you have been gifted with, and to nurture and revel in them, in order to become the wonderfully unique person that God, in all his wisdom, created you to be - even if that means upsetting the status quo.

I was brought up to believe that going off to "find yourself" was just a copout for pathetic losers (and maybe it is if you feel you have to dessert your loved ones to do it!). It wasn't until I read Simple Abundance (the book I gave away last month) in my 40's, that I gave myself permission to start the search, and ended up a much better wife, mother, and friend for having done it. Not only did that book teach me what it means to live authentically, it also introduced me to many shining examples of those who have achieved authenticity in their own right.

First and foremost was artist Tasha Tudor. The name didn't ring a bell when I first came across it, but as soon as I saw her paintings, I recognized an old and dear friend, for Tasha had illustrated many of the classic books that I treasured as a child, including The Secret Garden. That talent alone would have been quite enough to rest her laurels upon, but that was just the icing on the cake, when it comes to the wonder that is Tasha! You see, Tasha always felt that she was born to live the life of a Victorian farm wife, so that is what she created for herself at her home, Corgi Cottage, in Vermont. She wrote and illustrated more than seventy-five children's books, many based on her life there with her children, animals, and her beloved Welsh Corgi pups. Her favorite spot to work from was a cozy corner of her woodstove-heated kitchen, which she referred to as her "chipmunk's nest."

She was born into Boston society in 1914. Her family entertained the likes of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Mark Twain and Albert Einstein. However, Tasha felt from a very early age that she had lived before, in the 1830's, and things such as threading a loom, growing flax, spinning and milking cows just came naturally to her. The life she chose was not an easy one, and her husband later decided it wasn't the one for him, so the books and illustrations were a way for her to support her kids and continue on her path. She also made fabulous puppets and marionettes to entertain them, and they sometimes earned extra money by traveling around to put on shows with them.

But wait, there's more! There was the amazing garden that she designed and tended herself, right up through her 80's, wearing her trademark homespun dresses, aprons and caps, usually barefoot. There was the menagerie she tended, in addition to her corgies, that included Nubian goats which she milked twice a day, cats, chickens, doves, cockatiels, canaries, finches and parrots. In her spare time she amassed a noteworthy collection of antique clothing, which her children and grandchildren modeled for her book illustrations, mastered spinning and weaving her own linen, and became adept at cooking on a woodstove with nineteenth-century utensils. She continued on this path, always learning, creating, and ever keeping her sense of joy and wonder, until she passed away not long ago, somewhere in her 90's, having lived a most authentic life!

And so, Jessica, the book I am sending to you is The Private World of Tasha Tudor, by Tasha Tudor and Richard Brown. I hope you will treasure it, find inspiration, and refer to it often, as I have done. Congratulations!

P.S. Many thanks to independent.co.uk for the above image.