here’s an empowering echo reverberating throughout this issue of MAKING BREAD: “If I can do it, anyone can.” Reading through final proofs, I was struck by the fact that this affirmation is repeated, almost verbatim, by two women profiled in separate stories in the issue. One a novelist, the other a nurse, they are very different women, yet remarkably similar in character: resilient, determined, brave in the face of the stuff that can happen to each of us. Stuff like divorce, not knowing where your next paycheck is coming from, the loss of a loved one, finding yourself.

Change and how women deal with it is a recurring theme in this issue. Whether you’re starting out or starting over—expecting a first child, ending a marriage, or entering into a second (or third) marriage, preparing for graduation day or packing for yet another moving day—you can use this issue as your guide; gain insight and encouragement from women who have been there, done that. Change is a process called “life” that we go through, and home, that place where we feel most comfortable—as Laurie Lesser observes in her essay, “What Do You Need to Feel at Home?”— can be  “a moving target.”  Sometimes you just have to reinvent yourself.

          Money can smooth the process, or it can be the goad that drives you, the lack of it, a hurdle that tests your ingenuity. For some, like Carolyn See (the aforementioned novelist), for whom money is not a top priority, its power over you can be something to rebel against. In “If You Must Be Broke, Be ‘Flamboyantly Broke’,” See, who likes to keep money in its place, tells of her dysfunctional family life growing up, her two divorces, and how she’s come to define that thing that money can’t buy. “As long as you’re living your first choice of a life, then you’re a raving success,” she says. “I found out that you can live on almost nothing.” And there have been times when she’s done just that—with style. Check out her list of meals that feed four for $5—including wine.

Dottie Drake seconds See’s “If I can do it . . .” sentiment.  Read our “Biz Whiz” column, “”What Do You Do When You’ve Lost Your Husband, Your Job and Most of Your Money?”, to find out and how she reinvented herself by inventing a new kind of fitness club after she lost everything that had defined her in the past. “Everyone deserves a miracle, she says. “Sometimes you just have to make your own.”

            Celia Burke fears it will take a miracle to fix her financial situation. This 29-year-old who lives on a shoestring—yet splurges on $765 shoes—is the subject of our first MAKING BREAD Financial Makeover. Her essay, analyzing the conflicting desires in her life and why she spends beyond her means, makes for fascinating reading. Our experts offer hope, as well as practical suggestions to help her make her own miracle by resisting temptation and managing her money better.

Before they follow in Celia’s well-heeled footsteps, college grads should read “Welcome to the Real World!”, in which our “Female Finance” columnist, Elizabeth Lewin, suggests how those just entering the workforce might best spend their first paycheck and retire those burdensome college loans.

Perhaps the most difficult turning point (and choice) women face today is the radical shift from working woman to mother. “Don’t Ignore Us!” argues first-time mom Andrea J. Buchanan in our excerpt from her just-released book  “Mother Shock: Loving Every (Other) Minute of It.”  Read it to gain perspective on the subtle ways society belittles the “most important work a person can do. “I’m in Elmo’s world, not theirs,” she says, describing the feeling of invisibility that descends upon her when she encounters those who assume that sippy cups and diapers are all that she can think about, now that she’s become a mom.

           There are new beginnings and false starts. Today, with “starter marriages” such a prevalent trend, starting over, matrimonially speaking, has become more common than ever. What gets lost in the glow of love is the fact that marriage is a financial contract, and financial issues surrounding remarriage are often vastly different from those that couples face the first time around. Patricia Schiff Estess, author of “Money Advice for a Successful Remarriage,” maps this tricky emotional and financial terrain for those considering saying “I do” all over again in her article, “Know What You’re Saying ‘I Do’ To.”

           Victoria Secunda gives her lungs a fresh start by going cold turkey, quitting smoking. Read about what she plans to do with the money she saves in her “Funny Business” column, “No Butts About It—Kicking This Habit Is Saving Me Dough!” Let’s just say that mother love has something to do with it.

           Which brings me to memories of my own mother, who has come creeping into my mind as I sit here writing this note on the cusp of Mother’s Day, 2003.  In particular, I recall something she used to say to me over and over and over again: “You can do anything you want to do.” In her case, that was just another way of saying, “If I can do it, anyone can.” And so can you.

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Gail Harlow is the Founding Editor of MAKING BREAD. Send your comments, questions and suggestions to gail@makingbreadmagazine.com.

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