'Burnt Toast: And Other Philosophies of Life'
By TERI HATCHER
Continued from Page 2
Now I look at the scar on my leg and wonder if I did the right thing. Should I have let Emerson know that I was hurt? Should I have called over a (preferably cute) lifeguard for some first aid? Why didn't I do that? Why did I hide the truth about what was going on with me? Did I do it for her or for me? Was I trying to be cool or tough? There's an emotional experience embedded in that scar. There's a lesson locked in it. I'm done making silent self-sacrifices. I'm done hiding the truth. Here it is. Have at it.
Teri Hatcher, author of 'Burnt Toast: And Other Philosophies of Life' reflects a personal and revealing look into her love-life, childhood, and being a single parent.
I hope you'll discover as you read this book that vulnerability plays a key role in my life. It's hard for me—I have trouble admitting that I need other people. I've always tried to be honest about my fears and insecurities and self-doubt.
In my scrapbook from 1999 there's a fortune-cookie fortune that says, “Your luck has been completely changed today.” But you don't change in a day. Just because you're getting older or more successful doesn't mean you automatically grow as a human being. You learn things when life presents you with an opportunity and you're ready to receive it.
When Desperate Housewives came along, I was, like many an aging female actress in Hollywood, a big has-been. I've made no secret of that. I never expected to get a second chance, though I must have saved that fortune in hope that everything actually could change overnight.
When it did, when Desperate Housewives became a hit, I suddenly had the job and security and affirmation that I'd given up on long before.
The lessons here are about how to forgive, love, enjoy, and explore yourself as a woman. I've finally gotten to a place where I'm easier on myself. I'm comfortable and happy being a mother. Being in my body. Feeling sensual as a forty-year-old woman. Most of the time. If you've ever felt like a spicy gumbo of fear and confidence, despair and hope, desire and satisfaction, mother and child, pretty and ugly, strong and weak, then keep listening. The journey's a whole lot easier if we take it together.
Excerpted from 'BURNT TOAST: And Other Philosophies of Life' by Teri Hatcher (Hyperion; May 2006)
