Jack Canfield - Chicken Soup for the Womans Soul: 101 Stories to Open the Hearts and Rekindle the Spirits of Women

What a delightful treat! Take a break to read a few stories from Chicken Soup for the Womans Soul. It will add more joy and love to your day.

Gladys Knight
singer, entertainer

At last, a Chicken Soup for women! It touched all of my emotionsI laughed, I cried, I was inspired. Thank you for touching my female soul.

Olivia Newton-John
entertainer

Chicken Soup for the Womans Soul is a fabulous collection of inspiring stories for women. What a phenomenal way to connect with other women! This book will definitely move your heart and uplift your spirit!

Ann W. Richards
former governor of Texas

As women, we give so much of our hearts and souls to others. Chicken Soup for the Womans Soul will fill you back up again with love, joy and inspiration, and help you celebrate your magical female spirit.

Barbara DeAngelis
author, Real Moments

It is not very often that one reads a book that entertains, uplifts and moves one to tears. Chicken Soup for the Womans Soul is one of those books. I highly recommend it.

Susan Jeffers, Ph.D.
author, Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway and
End the Struggle and Dance with Life

I loved Chicken Soup for the Womans Soulthis edition of the Chicken Soup books has particularly touched me! Please keep writing more, as Ive grown to depend on these books throughout all of my many hours on airplanes!

Daisy Fuentes
model, actress, spokesperson

These stories remind us what it truly means to be a woman or girl in todays complex worldto have the personal courage, self-esteem and mentors who will inspire us to reach our dreams. Every busy working woman should take a few minutes out of her day to read these stories. They will refresh, inspire and bring balance to the day!

Leslie Smith
executive director, National Association for Female
Executives Womens Foundation

This serving of Chicken Soup for the Womans Soul has the power to heal the common cold of the human heart.

Margareta Arvidsson Cederroth
former Miss Universe

This beautiful collection of stories proclaims the richness of a tapestry of experience woven from the lives of women. These stories are refreshing and insightful; they help us become more self-aware and see with greater clarity those simple things that give meaning to our lives.

Ellen Greene
classics professor, University of Oklahoma

Reading Chicken Soup for the Womans Soul is an invitation to connect with what is best about our lives faith, hope, charity and love. Ill take two helpings pleaseone for me and one for a friend!

Susan B. Wilson

CHICKEN SOUP
FOR THE
WOMANS SOUL

101 Stories to
Open the Hearts and Rekindle
the Spirits of Women

Jack Canfield
Mark Victor Hansen
Jennifer Read Hawthorne
Marci Shimoff

Health Communications, Inc.
Deerfield Beach, Florida

www.hcibooks.com
www.chickensoup.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Chicken soup for the womans soul: 101 stories to open the hearts and rekindle the spirits of women / [compiled by] Jack Canfield et al.

p. cm.

eISBN-13: 978-0-7573-9737-0 (ebook) eISBN-10: 0-7573-9737-9 (ebook)

1. WomenConduct of lifeAnecdotes. I. Canfield, Jack (date).

BJ1610.C522 1996 96-24700

158.12dc20 CIP

1996 John T. Canfield and Hansen and Hansen LLC

All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher.

HCI, its logos and marks are trademarks of Health Communications, Inc.

R-09-07

Cover re-design by Lawna Patterson Oldfield

Phenomenal Woman

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.

Im not cute or built to suit a fashion models size

But when I start to tell them,

They think Im telling lies.

I say,

Its in the reach of my arms,

The span of my hips,

The stride of my step,

The curl of my lips.

Im a woman

Phenomenally.

Phenomenal woman,

Thats me.

I walk into a room

Just as cool as you please,

And to a man,

The fellows stand or

Fall down on their knees.

Then they swarm around me,

A hive of honey bees.

I say,

Its the fire in my eyes,

And the flash of my teeth,

The swing in my waist,

And the joy in my feet.

Im a woman

Phenomenally.

Phenomenal woman,

Thats me.

Men themselves have wondered

What they see in me.

They try so much

But they cant touch

My inner mystery.

When I try to show them

They say they cant see.

I say,

Its in the arch of my back,

The sun of my smile,

The ride of my breasts,

The grace of my style.

Im a woman

Phenomenally.

Phenomenal woman,

Thats me.

Now you understand

Just why my heads not bowed.

I dont shout or jump about

Or have to talk real loud.

When you see me passing

It ought to make you proud.

I say,

Its in the click of my heels,

The bend of my hair,

The palm of my hand,

The need for my care.

Cause Im a woman

Phenomenally.

Phenomenal woman,

Thats me.

Maya Angelou

W ith love we dedicate this book to
the 2.9 billion phenomenal women of the world.
May these stories touch your hearts
and inspire your souls.

We also dedicate this book to our parents,
Ellen Taylor and Fred Angelis, Una and Paul Hansen,
Maureen and Brooks Read, and Louise and
Marcus Shimoff, for the extraordinary gifts of
love and life you have given us.

Contents

Marsha Arons

Bobbie Lippman

Leo Buscaglia

Dan Clark

Sheryl Nicholson

David Farrell

Betty Aboussie Ellis

Dan Clark

Marsha Arons

Stephanie Bullock

Sandy Ezrine

Phyllis Volkens

Page Lambert

Louise Shimoff

Reminisce magazine

Oprah Winfrey

Roberta L. Messner

The Best of Bits & Pieces

Robert Fulghum

Marjorie Wall

Philip Chard

Lynn Robertson

Edgar Bledsoe

Jennifer Read Hawthorne

Charlotte Ward

Barbara K. Bassett

Fran Capo

Lynn Rogers Petrak

Linda Jessup

Kathie Lee Gifford and Stacey Nasalroad

Pat Bonney Shepherd