In the Broadway musical, The King and I, “Something Wonderful” is what the King’s First Wife sings to Anna (the English teacher who fights, tames and falls in love with him) to coax her into stopping the fight, to simply accept the King for who he is. These are the lyrics:
This is a man who thinks with his heart,
His heart is not always wise.
This is a man who stumbles and falls,
But this is a man who tries.
This is a man you’ll forgive and forgive
And help and protect, as long as you live.
He will not always say what you would have him say
But, now and then he’ll say something wonderful.
The thoughtless things he’ll do will hurt and worry you,
Then, all at once he’ll do something wonderful.
He has a thousand dreams that won’t come true
You know that he believes in them and that’s enough for you.
You’ll always go along, defend him when he’s wrong
And tell him when he’s strong, he is wonderful.
He’ll always needs your love and so he’ll get your love
A man who needs your love can be wonderful.
by Rodgers and Hammerstein
Click on “Leave a Comment” (above left) to share what reminds you to accept and treat yourself this kindly.
xoxox
xoxox
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As my highschool senior counts the days to flying the nest, I count nuggets of wisdom that might be useful to our younger self in the journey through less than sunny weather. A few favorites from and additions to Andrea Reiser’s list “47 Things I’ve Learned In My 40’s:”
Happiness has different faces. Gratitude is a choice.
Stop comparing your insides to everyone else’s outsides.
Laugh lines are worth it. Don’t waste a day without laughter.
Our body obsessions are invisible to others–until we point them out so Ssssshhh!
Experiences are infinitely more memorable than stuff.
Busy is overrated.
Take one day at a time, one step at a time, one breath at a time.
You can disagree with someone, but it doesn’t mean they’re wrong.
Being right is overrated.
Everything happens for a good reason, no matter how unclear that good reason may be for awhile.
Take a risk and seize the opportunity, it may never present itself again.
And as this Powerful Goddess reminds me “I AM ENOUGH!” to bloom where I’m planted, whatever the age, no matter the weather.
Click on “Leave a Comment” (above left) to add what sees you through.
xoxox
xoxox
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While I admire Anna Karenina’s fashion sense, I stand on the opposite side of the tracks in my belief that there is absolutely no man worth dying for. But for a daughter who is joy and beauty inside and out? Let’s talk…
This Powerful Goddess dedicates her portraits to her mom and best friend, the woman who chose 8 months of bed rest when doctors foretold that with her advanced age and history of miscarriage, she would never carry a baby to term. Certainly not the first (nor last) underestimation of a woman’s courage to choose life, yes?
In this Anna Karenina inspired concept to honor her Russian heritage, this Powerful Goddess proudly wears her mother’s green eyes and a touch of her Asian features. With her mother’s elegant hands, she writes, “My mom taught me to be kind, honest, and caring, to value life and family above all. I never keep secrets from her knowing that she doesn’t judge and will always be supportive. She gave me the ability to see beauty wherever I go. I admire her tenderness and strength, her wisdom, and her naiveté in loving fully and giving generously. I owe her my life and so much more. I love, you, Mama!”
Sniff, sniff! May all our daughters be as appreciative of us…
Click on “Leave a Comment” to share what you love best about the woman who chose life for you.
Happiest Mother’s Day to all and the Happiest Birthday Ever to my gorgeous Anna Karenina!
xoxox
Give the women you love the most unique gift of elegant and timeless portraits
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Comedy Central’s Amy Schumer parodies our beauty standards in this video “Girl, You Don’t Need Makeup.” We’re in on the joke if we admit how compulsively we submit to the judgment of others, particularly to the itinerant male gaze.
“You look better without makeup,” my husband used to tell me as a young bride and I’d stare back at him incredulously. I was blind to his point of view so his compliment bordered on ludicrous.
Having been raised with Western beauty as the ideal, my small eyes were the biggest thing I wished I weren’t born with. Kids with “normal” eyes teased, “Do you see half as much as we do?” My grandmother offered the best use of my first paycheck, “You should have slits done on your eyelids!” Too chicken for a cosmetic procedure my paycheck could not have covered anyhow, I piled on five layers of eye shadow each morning in a futile attempt to make my eyes look wider, bigger, less Asian. Several women in our family wore a similar patch of black eyeliner on the eyelids, mimicking that fold of skin our slanted eyes forgot to have. For most of my youth, no force on earth could have convinced me that almond eyes are beautiful.
Then my kids started rolling in. The second child was enough to make me feel sufficiently outnumbered and spread thin. Only two hands to get two kids dressed, fed and rushed to school? Something had to give! I lay down those makeup brushes in surrender.
Sixteen years later, it is now a mystery how I thought starting the day with heavy makeup was a bright idea. With three teens testing parental boundaries, small eyes see enough for me to handle. And will I swear off makeup completely? Not likely! What’s the point (and the fun) of being a woman if we didn’t have options, my dear–and plenty of them!
In behalf of those who eschew makeup because they can, this Powerful Goddess glamorously bares it. She is of that rare breed who firmly believes she is most beautiful without it. Why, even the blind can see that! Ah-men.
Click on “Leave a Comment” to share how you honor your natural beauty. xoxox
Give the women you love the most unique gift of elegant and timeless portraits
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Mad Men ends this week… Sigh! Who will not miss Don Draper and Joan Holloway, the epitomes of sexy in the 1960s? Way before their decade, who summed up sexy?
Gallerist Louis K. Meisel of New York City shares his extensive collection of the beautiful coiffed women next door, in stockings and garter belts, or in dreamlike settings captured in oil paintings, watercolors and pastels. The pin-up girl is said to have been born of war, when President Woodrow Wilson’s Division of Pictorial Publicity decided on her as the visual stimuli to persuade men to join the World War I. Both flirtatious and innocent, mischievous and sweet, was this well- or scantily-dressed woman persuasive or what?!
While pin-up is deemed as the objectification of women, it is also a testament to the quiet power of femininity, sexuality, and a woman’s freedom to choose. It is a recognition that women are agents of change simply by making the most of what she’s got (and have we got a lot!) in courage, style, looks, strength, compassion, wisdom, intelligence, charm, wit and humor. And may the softness of our curves lead mankind towards making more love than war!
The Great American Pin-up Girl Returns opens at the Louis K. Meisel Gallery in New York City today, April 2 to May 2, 2015.
Click on “Leave a Comment” (above left) to share what you love about pin-up. xoxox
Haddon Sundblom, Untitled (Girl with Dog)
Vaughan Alden Bass, Sugar N Spice oil on canvas
Gil Elvgren, Low Down Feelings, oil on canvas
William Medcalf, Permite Girl on Car Creeper, oil on canvas
What would you wear to the ball?! This modern Cinderella is not overly concerned. She is comfortable in her own skin. She does not let anyone tell her how to live her life. And she simply refuses to wear (or be) blue!
Despite video spoofs and satires spawned by the latest movie release of the beautifully passive victim, the box office does not appear to be suffering much. At least, let’s hope the movie opens interesting conversation between parents and children.
Child and teen development specialist Dr. Robyn Silverman suggests using stories as a springboard to conversation. “Ask children what they believe the story is trying to tell them,” she tells Yahoo Parenting. “’What would you do if you were in the same situation: held captive and offered one night to escape?’ ‘Where would you go?’ ‘Who would you enlist to help?’ Silverman’s favorite conversation starter with young ones is, “’What advice would you give the protagonist in the story?’” In the end, she says, “We want our children to recognize true love when they see it but also discover that when they are in a negative situation, their smarts, wit, courage and character can change it. And no, a prince should not be top of mind.”
Happiest Birthday to this Powerful Goddess who IS the party wherever she goes, choosing to give true love and happiness to her own self, and bravely wearing red or nothing at all!
Click on “Leave a Comment” (above left) to share the single shining epiphany that changed your life. xoxox
This Powerful Goddess welcomed her wondrous new decade by exploring the breadth of her enough-ness while honoring the women in her family with their treasured heirloom jewelry. It is magnificent to witness a woman venture out of her comfort zone, daring to go where she has not been before, celebrating the many possibilities of her choosing.
Through this long wintry month of snowy blankets that barely melt, I am grateful to be reminded of the reason for the fallow season and the blessing of dark times. I wish you the best and bravest decade, Powerful Goddess! Thank you for touching my life with the books of Brene Brown and the power of vulnerability. I shall always think of you each time I remind myself “I AM ENOUGH!”
Vulnerability is beautiful and necessary.
The courage to be imperfect,
to let go of what we think we should be,
the willingness to say I love you first,
to do something or love someone with no guarantees,
to let ourselves be seen as we are,
to practice gratitude and joy, to say “I am enough.”
Click on “Leave a Comment” (above left) to share how you grow strength in your darkness. xoxox
If you’re not watching the 50 Shades of Grey movie this weekend, here are some New York Times articles and book recommendations especially compiled by a favorite blog fan for our reading pleasure. How lucky are we to be so loved!
Adelle Waldman reviews this memoir/essay on truthfulness, deceit, and the growth and care of erotic love.
Click on “Leave a Comment” (above left) to share how well you shall love (thyself) this Valentine’s. Many hugs and kisses to you and our favorite blog fans! xoxox
Don’t bore your Valentine with lingerie–
give him/her the gift of lasting memories with Powerful Goddess Portraits!
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“Are we allowed?” my children might wonder aloud amongst themselves and I’d get mixed feelings. Because while parental rule is far easier unchallenged, I quietly applaud when they demonstrate defiance and daring, little or no hesitation in going for what they want, and not cowering in the face of authority. Home is mere practice for life’s realities after all.
With three teens, every day is an exercise in pushing against boundaries, questioning or ignoring rules, and learning to bounce back after a “No”–all this even before considering their experience! I love that their personalities differ and how this helps them figure out whose criticism is constructive, whose is plain one upmanship. Recognizing the types of people you can never please–usually the ones with loud and definitive opinions–eventually teaches us not to let anyone rain on our parade. That even if no one else is, we can always make the choice to take our own side.
I confess I want to pull my hair out listening to them bicker, each one absolutely certain that he or she is right. What saves me is the chuckle I get assuring them they are far too young to sound like an old, married couple.
Click on “Leave a Comment” (above left) to share who/what helped you to grow thicker skin.
What’s a New Year without new beginnings? Same old, same old. Unless you are courageous like this Powerful Goddess who enjoyed a good laugh celebrating the dawn of her new possibilities!
How different would 2015 be if we declared ourselves perfect as the day we were born, unfettered by beliefs, convention and expectations? Fearless except for the innate fear of heights and loud noises. Imagine being guilt free in following your desires, in satiating your ravenous appetites, in heeding the truth you hear in your heart. Imagine not having to explain, rationalize or defend your choices.
What would be different if you paid more attention to synchronicity and all the good life brings? If you decided you are your own fun company, best lover, and doting parent? If you said YES to everything and forgave yourself for anything?
This year, may we all dare something new, stop insisting on being happy all the time, and see ourselves with kinder and more loving eyes.
Click on “Leave a Comment” (above left) to share how rosy this year can be when you declare everything is right with you!
What could happen if we all decided to be naughty and leave Santa champagne instead of the usual milk and cookies? He’d probably lose his love handles, run Rudolph ragged on a wild joyride, and mix up the addresses of our chimneys. Nothing wrong with any of that–worst case, we just might end up finding better gifts under the tree!
Whether you’re traveling (with reindeers) or not, enjoy nibbling on these happy holiday travel treats:
Quick research. If you need an urgent answer or information re your destination, use Twitter as a de facto customer service line for travel companies and hotels.
Get a room upgrade. Be a loyal brand customer, be nice to front desk agents at check in and say “Thank you!” via social media after a great stay.
Tip generously. At a crowded bar, get attentive service the rest of the evening by tipping generously with your first round of drinks.
Pack these Apps. Viber to call/text globally where there’s Wi-Fi and avoid roaming charges. Lonely Planet Fast Talk to search by situation or look up local words/phrases. XE Currency for international exchange rates. MPassport to find accredited doctors near you.
For a comprehensive list of volunteer opportunities for your teens: Transitions Abroad
Travel insured. Tip the scales in your favor with Berkshire Hathaway’s Aircare. At a fixed rate of $25 purchased 24 hours before your departure. this travel insurance offers generous compensation for flight/bag delays and missed connections.
Click on “Leave a Comment” (above left) to add your travel tips for Santa and have the merriest Ho-Ho-Ho’s wherever you go!
It’s a merry time for women from behind, as well as in front of, the camera this holiday season with top grossing movies featuring two female directors and a slew of powerful actresses. I am personally intrigued by Cheryl Strayed’s book turned movie, Wild, because it is not about a woman finding love in another. It is about a woman finding her Self after great domestic upheaval through a 1,100 mile solitary hike in the woods.
Reese Witherspoon produced and stars in Wild, braving unshaved legs and no makeup. I like that as a mother of teens, she aspires to teach them to be brave and live life fully, with curiosity and love. That all the things we spend time worrying about are not important. That we will meet amazing and helpful people in our journey who will love us regardless of the parents we have. That we will do better than ok if we choose to spend less time tearing ourselves apart and admit that we’re good enough.
As she approaches 40, she admits that in her 20s, she didn’t realize that no one else can make her whole–no relationship, no child, no nothing can make her a happy person. I admire a woman who mans up to the reality that her happiness is up to her. That’s wild!
Click on “Leave a Comment” (above left) to share what’s wild to you.
Like this Powerful Goddess, Cleopatra’s charms went way beyond beauty. She had a keen intellect, a theatrical sense of style, and a force of character that rendered her presence irresistible. She knew how to make an indelible first impression, a grand entrance designed to weaken the knees of an audience of one or of the entire town. Even before email and despite stiff competition while her lovers traveled far and wide enduring mortal danger to expand her queendom, she new how to stir the pot of fun to keep her man coming back for more.
What ideas does this legend inspire for an extraordinary Thanksgiving feast? Present your beloved with your glamorous Powerful Goddess Cleopatra portraits before wrapping yourself in bandages like a mummy. Let him unwrap you with his teeth, licks and kisses required for each exposed part. Use the bandages to blindfold and tie him up later.
For now, click on “Leave a Comment” (above left) to add your genius on how to make Thanksgiving memorable.
“Say Yes to everything!” is fair warning and the only way to make the most of any experience, yes? At Queen of the Night, Broadway’s cabaret of connection and seduction, you’re immersed in dance, performance theater, circus, magic and bacchanalia, with dinner that makes a grand entrance from the stage. Say Yes when performers want to sit on your lap, invite you to who knows what or where, or dance on top of your dinner table. Say Yes to teasing, touching and being spoon fed dessert. And if you can’t say Yes to the roasted suckling pig on a spit, lobster served in birdcages, or the most delicious ribs, just ask for their vegetarian table.
Queen of the Night is on limited engagement until December at the Diamond Horseshoe Theater of the Paramount Hotel. Plan a different holiday celebration with the ladies, fun couples, or make new friends when you get there. Appoint yourselves Queens of the Night by adding bling and fur to that long dress that’s been sitting in the back of your closet!
Click on “Leave a Comment” (above left) to share what makes you feel royal.
When I was growing up, Halloween was All Souls Day. Parties, costumes and candy had absolutely nothing to do with it. The closest it came to partying was how we had to hang out with relatives at the cemetery, saying hello to the families in the grave next door as we cleaned up family plots in honor of our dear departed. I have no doubt I would have much preferred trick or treat.
From Pema Chodron’s “When Things Fall Apart”:
We are raised in a culture that fears death and hides it from us. Nevertheless, we experience it all the time. We experience it in the form of disappointment, in the form of things not working out. We experience it in the form of things always being in the process of change. When the day ends, when the second ends, when we breathe out, that’s death in everyday life.
Death in everyday life can also be defined as experiencing all the things we don’t want. Our marriage isn’t working; our job isn’t coming together. Having a relationship with death in everyday life means that we begin to be able to wait, to relax with insecurity, with panic, with embarrassment, with things, not working out. Time passing is as natural as the seasons changing and day turning into night. But getting old, getting sick losing what we love–we don’t see these events as natural occurrences. We want to ward off that sense of death, no matter what.
Giving up hope is encouragement to stick with yourself, to make friends with yourself, to not run away from yourself no matter what’s going on. Fear of death is the background of the whole thing. It’s why we feel restless, why we panic, why there’s anxiety. But if we totally experience hopelessness, giving up all hope of alternatives to the present moment, we can have a joyful relationship with our lives, an honest, direct relationship, one that no longer ignores the reality of impermanence and death.
To be fully alive, fully human, and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest. To live fully is to be always in no-man’s land, to experience each moment as completely new and fresh. To live is to be willing to die over and over again. From an awakened point of view, that’s life. Death is wanting to hold on to what you have to have every experience confirm you and congratulate you and make you feel completely together.
Click on “Leave a Comment” (above left) to share your thoughts. Trick or treat!
Aussie Sarah Turnbull’s memoir “Almost French” tells of her adventures in moving to the other side of the planet with the Frenchman she married. Reading her story was reminiscent of my own even as it transported me to the minutiae of Parisian life I may never experience as a tourist.
This Powerful Goddess also shares our story of braving a new life where love led her. I recognize the courage it took for her to trust her choices from the first moment she decided to follow destiny, and then over and over again through life’s baths and dry spells over the years. Who can really know the strength it takes to face the challenges of solitude and personal reinvention far from supportive family and friends? Here’s to the brave!
Click on “Leave a Comment” to share where else you’d like to live and why.
Only two things are necessary to keep one’s wife happy.
First, let her think she’s having her own way.
Second, let her have it.
Lyndon B. Johnson
The beauty of George Clooney’s gorgeous new bride, Amal Alamuddin, reminds me so much of Powerful Goddess Cora Poage. For those of us who have many years of “been there, done that,” what does it take to keep making your “happy ever after?” Here’s a handy collection of books for couples, newly married or not:
I Need Your Love–Is that true? by Byron Katie
Marriage Meetings for Lasting Love: 30 Minutes a Week to the Relationship You’ve Always Wanted by Marcia Naomi Berger
The Art of War for Lovers by Connell Cowall
The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom (A Toltec Wisdom Book) by Don Miguel Ruiz
Anatomy of Love: A Natural History of Mating, Marriage, and Why We Stray by Helen Fisher
Click on “Leave a Comment” (above left) to add your favorite relationship book or advice for young brides.
This morning, I kissed the kids goodbye –or good riddance? 😉 –as they dragged sleepy heads and heavy backpacks out the door. There has been very little contest between books and computer games through the summer and it is a sad kind of funny how they find reading a chore. Will I live to see the day when they’ll fall in love with learning just for the fun of it? Perhaps these seduction tips from Robert Greene’s “The Art of Seduction” can help me parent with charm through gritted teeth:
Remember the person who interests us most is our own self. Get inside the other person’s skin, piercing their psychology.
Stop saying the first thing that comes to your mind–you must control the urge to prattle and vent. Say things that please, that relate to their lives and touch their vanity. Say things that are witty and entertaining, or that make the future seem bright and hopeful.
Do not become sentimental–it is tiring, and too direct. The most anti-seductive form of language is argument. The superior way to get people to listen and be persuaded? Humor and a light touch.
Let them get an intriguing impression of you while you show no particular interest in them.
Focus on feelings and sensations, using expressions that are ripe with connotation. Plant ideas by dropping hints, writing suggestively without explaining yourself. Never lecture, never seem intellectual or superior. It is more persuasive to appeal to people’s hearts than their heads.
Flattery is music to anyone’s ears and is seductive language in its purest form. This is language designed to move people and lower their tolerance. Aim at the person’s weakness, the areas where he needs validation. Sniff out a talent or positive quality that others have not noticed.
Click on “Leave a Comment” (above left) to share your seduction tip or two. Goddess bless all the teachers in this world!
Because I love comedy, Old Hollywood glamour, and a woman who laughs with the world even as she makes a fool of herself, I kiss the feet of a most memorable summer birthday girl, one of America’s most beloved comedians, Lucille Ball.
Born determined on August 6, 1911, Lucille signed up for drama school in her teens despite her shy nature. She went on to try anything and everything from modeling, radio, vaudeville, Broadway and Hollywood trying to make ends meet while keeping her family together. She eventually produced her own iconic television show I Love Lucy, the first to be filmed in front of a live audience. As a fearless pioneer, she was the first woman to be featured pregnant in television history and more people tuned in for the episode when she “delivered” her son than for presidential inauguration of Eisenhower.
Memorable quotes from this unforgettable funny woman:
How was I Love Lucy born? We decided that instead of divorce lawyers profiting from our mistakes, we’d profit from them.
I’m not funny. What I am is brave.
I’d rather regret the things I’ve done than regret the things I haven’t done.
Luck to me is hard work and realizing what is opportunity and what isn’t.
If you want something done, ask a busy person to do it. The more things you do, the more you can do.
The secret of staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly, and lie about your age.
Love yourself first and everything else falls into place.
And her consolation for parents who’ve lost their teens to friends and/or the computers?
You see much more of your children once they leave home.
Thank you, Lucy, for all the laughter and wisdom through the years!
Click on “Leave a Comment” (above left) to share what you love about Lucy.
The Jazz Age Lawn Party was originated by Michael Arenella, the leader of the Dreamland Orchestra, steeped in the hot-dance band tradition of the 1920s and early 1930s. On Saturday, August 16, 2014 at 11:00 am (Governors Island 10 S St Slip 7, New York, NY), Governors Island steps back in time to celebrate the Jazz Age era with attendees wearing their flapper vintage best.
This is really the summer to brush up your Shakespeare. Before the endless lines begin for the Public Theater’s free Shakespeare in the Park production of “King Lear,” starring John Lithgow, observe Simon Russell Beale as directed by Sam Mendes. “King Lear” hasn’t been staged in Central Park since 1973 with James Earl Jones. Annette Bening as Goneril ups the ante (July 22-Aug. 17, publictheater.org) at the Delacorte Theater. And when I’m in Central Park, I simply must dine at the Boathouse!
Make your first impression count by polishing your personal brand and mastering the do’s and don’ts of cocktail parties at the Etiquette School of New York (200 East 64th Street, Manhattan, June 26, $575, etiquette-ny.com).
If you missed the best outdoor dance parties of Midsummer Night Swing, Lincoln Center continues the summer celebration with a variety of shows and concerts the rest of the summer: Dan Zanes and Peter Yarrow are among the singers for a Pete and Toshi Seeger memorial concert (July 20), Roberta Flack (July 26) and Rosanne Cash (Aug. 9), and nights of poetry and dance (July 20-Aug. 10, free, lcoutofdoors.org). The classical music heard during Mostly Mozart, of course, is not all Mozart. The monthlong extravaganza begins with the premiere of John Luther Adams’s Inuit-influenced “Sila: The Breath of the World” and makes room for a premiere work by the Mark Morris Dance Group (July 25-Aug. 23).
On Broadway until August, treat yourself to intimate encounters with the comely cast members of Queen of the Night. Every individual’s experience will be different if you happen to be chosen by any of the “butlers”–show wranglers who spirit customers away for private encounters. Your hand may be kissed, fondled or perhaps placed on a naked hip. You may find yourself familiarly stroked as you wander the rooms of the lavishly restored Billy Rose’s Diamond Horseshoe nightclub in the basement of the Paramount Hotel on West 46th Street.
Click on “Leave a Comment” (above left) to add what’s on your NYC summer calendar. Stay cool!
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