Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only €10,99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Kiss Me, I'm Single: An Ode to the Solo Life
    Kiss Me, I'm Single: An Ode to the Solo Life
    Kiss Me, I'm Single: An Ode to the Solo Life
    Ebook74 pages1 hour

    Kiss Me, I'm Single: An Ode to the Solo Life

    By Amanda Ford

    3/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Note: This is NOT a book for single women on how to find a man/ it is a guide for women who want to find their truest selves and celebrate them. As the author of the daily meditation book for teenage girls, Be True to Yourself, Amanda Ford's message of fierce individuality and even stronger identity has grown up with her audience. 

    In her new book Kiss Me, I'm Single, Ford exhorts single women not to get lost in the pressure to be in a relationship (single women's mantra: Any relationship will do ) and not to lose themselves in a relationship. The bottom line is that the most important relationship they can have is with themselves. True love is an inside job and begins with you. It is a basic fact of life that in order to be truly happy and fulfilled with another person, you must be truly happy and fulfilled on your own first. A good relationship can enhance life for sure, but it cannot take what is just "okay" and turn in into perfect. In Kiss Me, I'm Single Amanda Ford urges readers: "Get off your derrieres and get to work on yourself. Go inward and be relentless in your search. Discover what is in you that you must do in order to bring joy into your own life." Refreshingly honest, ruefully witty and wise, Ford has also dug deep down and done the work she recommends. From her soulsearching sojourn, Amanda Ford brings back news that will empower all young women: "Love has nothing to do with another person/ it is a condition of your own heart."

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherConari Press
    Release dateJul 1, 2007
    ISBN9781609251406
    Kiss Me, I'm Single: An Ode to the Solo Life
    Author

    Amanda Ford

    Amanda Ford is a vibrant writer with a talent for uncovering extraordinary meaning in everyday events. In Retail Therapy, Amanda takes an insightful and fun look at the lessons we can glean while participating in a common activity: shopping. Amanda's work has been featured in publications such as Real Simple, Glamour, The Chicago Tribune, and The Seattle Times, and she is a regular contributor to the popular travel website Girl's Guide to City Life. You can contact Amanda through her website.

    Read more from Amanda Ford

    Related to Kiss Me, I'm Single

    Related ebooks

    Relationships For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related categories

    Reviews for Kiss Me, I'm Single

    3/5

    10 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Kiss Me, I'm Single - Amanda Ford

      This book is utterly life affirming!

      Amanda Ford's wisdom is urgently needed in a world where marriage is no longer the status quo.

      Full of sparse prose and rousing insights, this small yet powerful book elevates singleness to new heights.

      Karen Salmansohn, author of How to be Happy, Dammit and Even God Is Single

      Preface

      Because living alone is not easy, because the myth that love is a rare luxury enjoyed only by those in married relationships has persisted for too long, because sometimes a small book written in clear, simple, straightforward language helps more than anything, because every woman deserves to know her own beauty, deserves to discover her deepest passions, deserves to live a vibrant and joyful life regardless of her relationship status...

      I offer you Kiss Me, I'm Single: An Ode to the Solo Life.

      one

      Bring In the Cats!

      Falling in love is what happens while you are busy loving your own life.

      Sometimes being a single woman feels like an emergency. It feels as urgent as Code Red when my married friends ask if I am seeing anybody special and my answer is No for the eighth month in a row. It feels like Code Red when my grandmother scowls and scolds, You girls today want too much. You don't know anything about making a marriage work. You need to learn how to compromise. It feels like Code Red when I begin doing the math and figure that if I want to be pregnant by one particular age, and if I want to spend a few years traveling the world with my husband before we have children, and if I simply want to date him for a few years before we get engaged, then I should have met him fifteen months ago.

      Fifteen months ago! Code Red!

      Emergency! We have a spinster in the making here, a young maid on the verge of becoming an old one, a lonely lady, a mistress without a man, a hag.

      Send her away to a rickety old shack.

      Bring in the cats.

      It is not easy to be a single woman, and sometimes I wonder if it is even possible to be a woman without a man, because with no man a woman is just a W and an O and together those letters sound like whoa. Whoa like a horse out of control. Whoa like pulling back hard on the reigns, trying to calm her down, trying to stop her. Whoa there girl! Don't run that way. Don't buck. Don't throw your head back and holler nay. Nay! Nope! No way! Never! A woman without a man? Not possible.

      Woe is me then, and woe is us. Woe to the women who live alone and long for love. Woe to the women who are scared of alone and so settle for men who make them only moderately happy. Woe to us with holes in our hearts that seem impossible to fill. Woe to us who are lonely by ourselves and to us who are lonely in the company of others. It is nothing but woe trying to keep bellies flat, rear ends toned, fingernails trimmed, hairs plucked, in hopes that these things will bring us some male attention. And woe is the only thing that can be said on those days when our breath comes in sighs, those days when our hearts beat prayers of longing: Help me, help me, help me.

      Wait! Take a deep breath! Calm down!

      Relax! Don't worry! It's just a false alarm. All this talk of romantic relationships being the only place to find fulfillment in life, all this talk of love being scarce—it's Chicken

      Little chatter making us frantic for no reason at all.

      Being a single woman is not easy, but it is not an emergency either.

      Being single is the natural state of life.

      Think of it: We are each born single, born solo, born uniquely our own individual. Even twins enter this world one at a time.

      I am not saying that romantic relationships are an unworthy pursuit. The desire to share your life with another person is real and as natural as being born in the buff. We must search tirelessly for love. We must keep our hearts open and ready to relate, for relationships help us expand beyond the narrow confines of our own existence. Relationships help us grow. They help us become kinder, softer, more compassionate to the people around us. Relationships offer security and comfort and can help to quiet those existential worries that wail like banshees in our minds. These are beautiful treasures and all worth a grand quest.

      But do not be so intent on finding another that you forgot to see yourself. Do not be one of those foolish women who think that the love they give themselves is less important and less fulfilling than the love they get from men. Believe that it is just as important for you to get to know yourself as it is for you to get to know your lover. Believe that the love you offer yourself is essential and divine. Believe that the most important relationship you will ever have in your life is the one that you have with yourself. Believe it down to your bones: The search for another person must never preclude the search for yourself.

      Of course, belief alone does not make the endeavor easy.

      Love is

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1