Home-haven

Audrey Hepburn first captivated my imagination when I saw her in the movie "Roman Holiday" at the age of twelve... but more than acting in films, Audrey loved being a mother. "Even when I was little, what I wanted most was to have a child," she said. "That was always the real me. The movies were just fairy tales."

At the age of forty, after having made her most famous films - "Sabrina," "Breakfast at Tiffany's," "My Fair Lady," and "Funny Face" - she settled down to a domestic life in Rome. The public was dismayed and suggested she was really settling. But Audrey had no regrets: "It's sad if people think that's a dull existence," she said, "but you can't just buy an apartment and furnish it and walk away. It's the flowers you choose, the music you play, the smile you have waiting. I want it to be gay and cheerful, a haven in this troubled world. I don't want my husband and children to come home and find a rattled woman. Our era is already rattled enough, isn't it?"

Hmmmm...if I had to choose one word to describe my state of mind after a Saturday chocked-full of holiday 'to-dos' it would be rattled. The Christmas season, for all its charm, can really do that to you, can't it? But this quotation inspires me to remember that, whether you are a mother or not, nurturing people matters. It may not get your face on the cover of a magazine, but what could be better than making an investment in someone's soul?