03 Jul 2014
by Powerful Goddess Portraits by Sharon Birke of DoubleSmart LLC
in Best Books for Women, Boudoir Photography, Glamour Portraits, Women's Empowerment
Tags: Break Free Today, Freedom and Independence, Parenting Teens, pin up, When Things Fall Apart Pema Chodron
The truth will set you free,
but first it will piss you off.
Gloria Steinem
Here’s Summer! With three teens under my roof, freedom and independence are never far from my mind even when it’s not the 4th of July. On the radio, I hear lyrics of pop songs like Wasted and Fancy that revel in the freedom of being unconsciousness, blacking out as a convenient excuse for “I don’t know what happened to me!” Do the young seriously believe adults don’t crave this same relief from living the straight and narrow?! Red, white, and blue don’t do as much for me as seeing red lips pop on black and white with Powerful Goddess Cora Poage.
Pema Chodron speaks of a more genuine freedom in this excerpt from her book When Things Fall Apart:
We are told from childhood that something is wrong with us, with the world, and with everything that comes along: it’s not perfect, it has rough edges, it has a bitter taste, it’s too loud, too soft, too sharp, too wishy-washy. We cultivate a sense of trying to make things better because something is bad here, something is a mistake here, something is a problem here.
To dissolve this dualism, we must question our habitual tendency to struggle against what’s happening to us or in us. What if we move toward difficulties than backing away? We don’t get this kind of encouragement very often.
Everything that occurs in our lives is not only usable and workable but is actually the path itself. We can use everything that happens to us as the means for waking up. We can use everything that occurs–whether it’s our emotions and thoughts or our seemingly outer situation–to show us where we are asleep and how we can wake up completely, utterly, without reservations.
In the practice of lojong, a slogan says, “When the world is filled with evil, all mishaps, all difficulties, should be transformed into the path of enlightenment.”
We’re trying to learn not to split ourselves between our “good side” and our “bad side,” between our “pure side” and our “impure side.” The elemental struggle is with our feeling of being wrong, with our guilt and shame at what we are. That’s what we have to befriend. The point is that we can dissolve the sense of dualism between us and them, between this and that, between here and there, by moving toward what we find difficult and wish to push away.
Click on “Leave a Comment” (above left) to share your blacks, whites, and reds.
© Sharon Birke
201 697 1947
Sharon@PowerfulGoddess.com
www.PowerfulGoddess.com
Glamour Portraits of the Goddess in Every Wife & Mother
18 Jun 2014
by Powerful Goddess Portraits by Sharon Birke of DoubleSmart LLC
in Best Movies for Women, Boudoir Photography, Glamour Portraits, Women's Empowerment
Tags: Angelina Jolie movie, fine art nude, Maleficent Movie, Sleeping Beauty Fairytale, Villain and Heroine
Everything has beauty,
but not everyone sees it.
Confucius
“What did you love about Maleficent?,” I asked my daughter after our very happy Father’s Day at the movies without the men.
“She’s very pretty!” she smiled. May we all be as easy to please! Indeed, what’s not to love about a strong and beautiful heroine–albeit a villain, too?
Maleficent is the wronged and misunderstood woman in this revisionist-backstory fairytale. She suffers the deepest betrayal imaginable from the person she loves and trusts the most, the one with whom she shares her first “true love’s” kiss. While it is mainly about bloodlust after being violated and stripped of our power, it is also about the journey of moving forward and making the most of what is. I like how it reverses the pedestrian notion of true love, a necessary expansion of every child’s understanding of what real love can be.
Best of all, I love how it is a cautionary tale against quick judgments and our propensity to take every “victim’s” side. Like King Stefan, it is human nature to choose the version of the story that makes us look good and pitiful. It takes courage to notice that when we feel like “Woe is me!,” there is an angle of culpability we’re not admitting. For in every beauty, there is a beast. And in every villain, a heroine who can save herself.
Click on “Leave a Comment” (above left) to share the beauty in your beast.
xoxox
© Sharon Birke
201 697 1947
Sharon@PowerfulGoddess.com
www.PowerfulGoddess.com
Glamour Portraits of the Goddess in Every Wife & Mother
23 Apr 2014
by Powerful Goddess Portraits by Sharon Birke of DoubleSmart LLC
in Boudoir Photography, Charitable Giving, Glamour Portraits, Women's Empowerment
Tags: Earth Day, green dress, NYC Central Park Lake, save the planet, Water Is Life
There are only three things
women need in life:
food, water and compliments.
Chris Rock
On Earth Day, this Powerful Goddess dances with gratitude for Mother Earth’s generosity, paying homage to the source of all life: Water.
FIT’s Niki Lars turned me on to the youtube video First World Problems Read by Third World People for the charity organization WaterIsLife.com. Haitian adults and children mouth the minor gripes and irritations that first world citizens post on Twitter–a witty role reversal calling our attention to the blessings we take for granted while many parts of world do without the most basic yet very critical comfort like clean drinking water.
Having been to places where running water is not 24/7, I still cringe when my husband runs the tap while shaving or brushing teeth, when my teen stands under the shower full blast for a half hour, when I hear about an entire reservoir being emptied of millions of gallons because a surveillance video spied a kid peeing into it. A few decades back, who would have bet money that tap water might become captive to bottled commerce? Maybe this is how we can begin to value what nature intended for all her creatures to freely enjoy.
Click on “Leave a Comment” (above left) to share how you’re a guardian of Mother Nature’s abundance.
Ask me for a portrait session with your loved ones when you donate to WaterIsLife.com
Niki Lars is a founding father of the Morning Salon, a sustainability forum open to the NYC community hosted by the Fashion Institute of Technology for companies who seek earth friendly solutions to their products and processes.
xoxox
© Sharon Birke
201 697 1947
PowerfulGoddess@me.com
www.PowerfulGoddess.com
Glamour Portraits of the Goddess in Every Woman
20 Mar 2014
by Powerful Goddess Portraits by Sharon Birke of DoubleSmart LLC
in Boudoir Photography, Glamour Portraits, Womon's Health and Wellness
Tags: first day of spring, flower theme portratis, international day of happiness
The earth laughs
in flowers.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Happy first day of Spring, my darlings! And what a thrill to celebrate the day that has just been declared the first International Day of Happiness! For who doesn’t get happy knowing the long slumber of winter is over and flower season is near? This Powerful Goddess does not have to wait for anyone to bring her flowers, she blooms like no other any day of the year!
What took us so long to think of this annual happiness celebration anyway? Goddess knows! What did take me most of my life to realize is that happiness has many faces. Many insist on a smile and a happy face as important indicators–we all know they aren’t that dependable. Some people require silence and a solitary existence, others can’t live without constant noise and the next emergency. There are those who look forward to retirement heaven, while a few see it as certain death. Contrary to popular belief, misery and suffering bring some a certain comfort, so it’s wise to bite the tongue and curb our habit of giving advice. Whatever our personal definition, the world’s happiness at large may depend on our letting go of the need to convert others to our chosen “religion,” especially those whom we live with every day.
Since one whole year is a very long time to wait for the next happiness celebration, click on “Leave a Comment” (above left) to add to this list of little nothings that add joy to your every day.
flowers out my window, birds in the backyard
no snow to shovel
old photographs
funnies and a good belly laugh
a clean kitchen sink
scheming with friends
finding street parking in NYC
kindness, thoughtful gifts, happy surprises
curls, swirls, and beauty in style and design
high ceilings and glorious chandeliers
arches, curves, and unexpected angles
dressing up
yellow, orange, red and sunshiny hues
reading, dancing, and learning something new
a husband who helps around the house on weekends
the smile on my daughter’s face
seeing my sons cook dinner–sometimes cajoled, sometimes nagged, always reassured that no woman can resist a man who cooks and brings her flowers for no occasion, in any season.
xoxox
xoxox
26 Feb 2014
by Powerful Goddess Portraits by Sharon Birke of DoubleSmart LLC
in Boudoir Photography, Glamour Portraits, Italy Travel
Tags: 18th century period costume, Best Family Vacation Europe, fantasy costume, masquerade ball, Venice Carnival
What happens in fantasy
can be more involving than what happens in life–
and thank goodness for that.
Roger Ebert
Among my favorites in posing, Nhaelle de France
If you can visit Venice only once in your entire lifetime, time it for Carnival and bring the kids! This annual winter festival of masquerade and fantastic costumes can be traced back to the beginning of the 14th Century when months before Lent, everyone in town wore masks to break down social barriers and playfully defy differentiation between nobility and the common people.
Today, an international crowd of 3 million revelers congregate and make time to dress up in their original and fantastic creations or an elegant wardrobe of authentic period pieces. Those in full regalia are so very kind and accommodating in holding a pose for your camera. Can you imagine the time and effort each costume takes to create and transport, never mind wearing them all day in heat or cold for the two weeks of the fabulous Venice Carevale. I’ll let the photographs speak eloquently for themselves. You bet it wasn’t easy choosing which creations to exclude here.
Click on “Leave a Comment” (above left) to share what your fantasy costume might be.
Christine et Eric Plas
followed the yellow brick road from France
Almost a kiss by Pierre and Dominique
If you were wondered “Where’s the party?”
Should we tell?
Anabella from Estonia checks her makeup
I just love how the background complements this ensemble
I’m a night owl who didn’t know
catching the rising sun could be such fun
with Jeanne of France
A rose and a serenade for mi amore
on Burano Island
Love the shadows matching the pointy hats on
Monika and Peter Gowitzke from Germany
The opulence of this flamingo theme
is one of my Carnival favorites
A most adorable party peeper
xoxox
© Sharon Birke
201 697 1947
Email me
www.PowerfulGoddess.com
Glamour Portraits of the Goddess in Every Wife & Mother
xoxox
12 Feb 2014
by Powerful Goddess Portraits by Sharon Birke of DoubleSmart LLC
in Boudoir Photography, Glamour Portraits, Poems for Women
Tags: Erotic Poem, Frog Prince, King of Hearts, Marilyn Monroe Look, unique & personalized Valentine gifts, Valentine's Day
Who is king of your heart?
A Valentine poem in case your Prince Charming doubts…
Return often and take me,
beloved sensation, return and take me —
when the memory of the body awakens,
and old desire again runs through the blood;
when the lips and skin remember,
and the hands feel as if they touch again.
Return often and take me at night,
when the lips and the skin remember.
Return by CP Cavafy (translated by Rae Dalven)
Click on “Leave a Comment” (above left) to share your favorite erotic poem
or best Valentine gift ever.
xoxox
© Sharon Birke
201 697 1947
Email me
www.PowerfulGoddess.com
Glamour Portraits of the Goddess in Every Wife & Mother
29 Jan 2014
by Powerful Goddess Portraits by Sharon Birke of DoubleSmart LLC
in Boudoir Photography, Glamour Portraits, Unique and Personalized Gift Ideas
Tags: #BodyArt for #Women, #Horse #Tattoo for #Women, Alphonse Mucha #ArtDeco, Chinese New Year of the Horse
The one thing I do not want to be called is First Lady.
It sounds like a saddle horse.
Jackie Kennedy
By Ukrainian artist Dmitriy Samohin (Photo from Rattatoo.com)
As tribute to feminine creativity and courage celebrating the Chinese New Year of the Horse, here are a few Asian inspired tattoos and excerpt from Margot Mifflin’s Bodies of Subversion (another delightful addition to my library thanks to a favorite blog fan):
In a culture where surfaces matter, skin, the largest organ is the scrim on which we project our greatest fantasies and deepest fears about our bodies. For women, skin is a work in progress through which we celebrate–and denigrate–ourselves.
In The Decorated Body, anthropologist Robert Brain calls body modification “an attempt to put on a new skin, a cultural as opposed to a natural skin.” His observation is especially resonant for women, whose ties to nature have historically been used to justify their exclusion from culture. Whether they see tattooing as an embellishment of or an intrusion on the “natural body; whether they build their collections on a bedrock of sexual politics; and whether or not they call themselves feminists, tattooed woman constitute a subculture whose political implications are indisputable. Life female body builders, who contest the idea that a “built” woman isn’t a real woman, or feminist pornographers, who puncture the myth that objectified sex is necessarily exploitative or degrading, they’re rewriting the ground rules for female self-presentation.
In the never-ending project of women’s self-transformation, tattoos are both an end and a beginning, a problem and a solution. Written on the skin–the very membrane that separates the self from the world–they’re diary entries and public announcements, conversation pieces and countercultural tomes, valentines to lovers, memorials to the dead, reminders to the self. They’re scars and symptoms, mistakes and corrections. Collectively, they form a secret history of women grappling with body politics from the Gilded Age to the present–women whose intensely personal yet provocatively public art poses a complicated challenge to the meaning of female beauty.
Click on “Leave a Comment” (above left) to share what having tough skin means to you. Gong Xi Fa Cai!
Japanese Samurai by Jill Bonny, the first Western woman to be awarded the title Horiyuki by Japanese tattoo master Horiyoshi III
An Alphonse Mucha art deco reproduction by Thea Duskin on a fan that reminds me of the Korean traditional
Geisha by Jo Harrison
Koi by Kari Barba
xoxox
Sharon Birke
201 697 1947
Email me
www.PowerfulGoddess.com
Glamour Portraits of the Goddess in Every Wife & Mother
15 Jan 2014
by Powerful Goddess Portraits by Sharon Birke of DoubleSmart LLC
in Boudoir Photography, Glamour Portraits, Women's Empowerment
Tags: black thigh high stockings, Dolce & Gabbana look, flower dress, Fur Stole
A garden to walk in and
immensity to dream in–
what more could a woman ask?
A few flowers at her feet and above her the stars.
Victor Hugo
This Powerful Goddess tells me she’s been catching her forehead wrinkled too often lately: short tempered and tired from keeping up with the never ending shoulds of work and home, nagging kids who turn deaf when plugged into their computers, unseen by a husband happy in his cocoon of all work and no play. Her oft repeated stories of discontent have finally bored her–never mind her friends and family. She declared, “Enough of the blues!”
“But wait!” I asked, “What if we let the blues help tell your whole story?” Aren’t our joys made greater by the distance we rise from our depths? The fire inside her refuses to be dulled by the gray of routine and obligation. So there! A passionate pop of orange with a warm furry stole thrown in.
“Do I really look this good?” she wanted to know. Only if you take a moment to remember all the parts of who you are!
It is always humbling to witness the Goddess in a woman come out to play and shine through a life affirming lens. Oh, how she blooms with praise, how she looks infinitely younger as she enjoys herself fully in the moment! I feel so blessed to give a woman a glimpse of the fabulousness she takes for granted in her day to day.
No matter how gray the winter, this gardener of her own soul digs deep and blooms in her own garden of delight.
Click on “Leave a Comment” (above left) to share what helps you through your winters of discontent.
xoxox
xoxox
Sharon Birke
201 697 1947
PowerfulGoddess@me.com
www.PowerfulGoddess.com
Glamour Portraits of the Goddess in Every Woman
18 Dec 2013
by Powerful Goddess Portraits by Sharon Birke of DoubleSmart LLC
in Beauty and Fashion, Boudoir Photography, Glamour Portraits
Tags: Best Red Lipstick, Curvy Boudoir, kiss proof lipstick, The Marilyn Monroe Look
Beauty to me is about being comfortable in your own skin.
That or a kick-ass red lipstick.
Gwyneth Paltrow
This is a good season as any to trade your Little Black Dress for red like this Powerful Goddess wearing her favorite! If you insist on black, add chic confidence to your smile with a shade of scarlet. The better to be ready for the many hugs and kisses you’re giving and getting through the holidays!
See which of these crimsons suit you: Christian Dior’s 999, MAC’s Lady Danger, Obsessive Compulsive’s Stalker, NARS’ Cruella, Chanel Rouge Allure Velvet Luminous Matte No. 38, YSL’s Rouge Pur Couture Mats No. 201. And here’s how to kiss-proof those pouty red lips:
Start by gently exfoliating your lips with a wet cotton ball and applying olive oil (blot out excess) for a smooth, flakeless canvas. Shade lips with a soft pencil that matches the natural color of your mouth or preferred lipstick. Outline the rim or your lips to create a bumper that helps minimize color bleeding. Apply a coat of lipstick from the center of your mouth outward (use a brush, your finger, or apply straight from the tube). Use a cotton ball to dab face powder and seal in color. Reapply a second coat of lipstick plus powder and voila!
Ready or not–here I come with my own mistletoe! Ho-ho-ho!
Click on “Leave a Comment” (above left) to share your favorite red.
© Sharon Birke
201 697 1947
Email me
www.PowerfulGoddess.com
Glamour Portraits of the Goddess in Every Wife & Mother
xoxox
27 Nov 2013
by Powerful Goddess Portraits by Sharon Birke of DoubleSmart LLC
in Boudoir Photography, Family Celebration, Glamour Portraits
Tags: Easy Thanksgiving parties, Holiday entertaining or not, Martha Stewart lifestyle, Staub Cast Iron Pumpkin Pot
The essence of all beautiful art,
all great art,
is gratitude.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Aahh, the happy holidays are here and my heart goes out to all ye who have to cook but don’t want to. The caterer’s order form keeps winking at me each time I walk past the kitchen counter, but no, I shall not succumb to temptation. My kids need every available bait to lure them away from their singular preoccupation–the computer–and if this means overseeing the mess as they make the one dish each is supposed to contribute to the Thanksgiving table, I shall prevail!
I must call Martha and find out how she keeps her apron spotless, her smile calm and fresh after preparing a feast for twenty. From scratch. Where does she find guests who sit politely around the dinner table without anyone ever checking their smartphone, the men never staring at the TV, the kids eating daintily without fighting? More importantly, where does she hide her army of assistants who lead us to believe one smiling woman did it all? How do domestically challenged women cope with this popular myth of the perfect mother? Oy vey!
I am thankful I’ve learned to be gentle with myself. My pumpkin pots look better as props for posing, yes?
I am thankful for the Powerful Goddesses who bless this blog with their infinite wisdom, beauty and inspiration.
I am thankful for the love of family and friends who understand happiness is gratitude for what is–perfection not necessary.
Click on “Leave a Comment” (above left) to share what you’re thankful for. A very Happy Gobble Gobble!
xoxox
06 Nov 2013
by Powerful Goddess Portraits by Sharon Birke of DoubleSmart LLC
in Boudoir Photography, Glamour Portraits, International Travel
Tags: Harem women, Odalisque paintings, The Seraglio in Istanbul
If the sun had not been female,
even she would never have been allowed
to enter the harem.
Dursun Bey
Grand Odalisque by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres
on the cover of The Harem: The World Behind the Veil by Alev Lytle Croutier
“For your blog… Happy Saturday!” wrote a beloved blog fan who shares my enthusiasm for reading, travel, art and the language of gifts. When a thoughtful note comes with a surprise like this book of gorgeous illustrations, how can any day be less than happy?!
It transported me to my week in Istanbul, breathing in the musk of the Turkish Straits on a rooftop with a 360 degree view, speculating on the lives of the local women in traditional dress below. I toured the Topkapi Palace’s Grand Seraglio and imagined those cloistered in the Sultan’s harem from 1500s to 1900s. Walking through the empty boudoirs, marble baths, and latticed hallways, I wondered–despite my love of fancy costume and interior decor–how did it feel to live in a cocoon of physical and spiritual isolation? What secrets, what drama, what boredom had these stairways and alleys witnessed?
Renditions of European women in various states of elaborate undress was a major theme in Western art and may not have anything to do with the reality of the sultan’s harem, but why forbid imagination and creativity? I adore women relaxed in the sensuality of their bodies, some with a frank stare, others heedlessly enjoying an unselfconscious moment. And, oh, the beauty of intricate mosaics, rich silks and velvets, and the pleasing curves of skin like ivory!
Click on “Leave a Comment” (above left) to tell us what you wish were not forbidden.
Odalisque With a Slave by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres
The Bath by Jean-Leon Gerome
The White Slave by Jean-Jules-Antoine Lecomte de Nouy
The Daughters of a Sheik by Conrad Kiesel
Leila by Sir Frank Dicksee
xoxox
© Sharon Birke
201 697 1947
Email me
www.PowerfulGoddess.com
Glamour Portraits of the Goddess in Every Wife & Mother
xoxox
31 Oct 2013
by Powerful Goddess Portraits by Sharon Birke of DoubleSmart LLC
in Best Books for Women, Boudoir Photography, Glamour Portraits
Tags: Gail Evans Play Like a Man Win Like a Woman, Halloween Butterfly Mask, Huffington Post Women Success
Guilt:
the gift that keeps on giving.
Erma Bombeck
Boo–Happy Halloween to you! In the Women’s section of Huffington Post, an article about men, women and success claims that the Millenial woman is the first generation to describe herself ambitious. Yet, does self-doubt plague men as it does women in their striving for success? A few tricks and treats from Gail Evans’ Play Like a Man, Win Like a Woman:
The impostor syndrome causes us to lie in constant fear that we will be discovered, that our inadequacies will be exposed, and that we will be humiliated, demoted, dismissed. Women who suffer from the impostor syndrome frequently expend as much energy trying to figure out how to survive their presumed unmasking as they expend doing the actual job.
The truth is, we are all impostors. Each and every one of us, men and women alike. None of us has a grasp on all the facts. Think about it. Does any one of us truly know everything there is to know about raising kids? No. But that doesn’t stop us from doing it, or from doing it very well.
There isn’t one of us who can honestly say that (s)he knows everything there is to know about the job, or who can’t be caught off guard, or who couldn’t be replaced one day by someone more talented. And believe me, the same is true of all of your bosses.
Men fake it whenever and wherever they have to. They wear their game face and go from one place to the next, gathering as much information as they can. Even when the odds are against them, they still try to look as if they’re going to win. The closer they move to the top in business, the more they rely on improvisation, self-confidence, and the generalized ability to draw on past experience rather than book knowledge.
When you are doing something new, there is no safety net. That is nerve wracking. That is also how creative ideas are advanced. You can admit, “I’m in new territory, but I wouldn’t be here if I weren’t competent. Instead of focusing on what I don’t know, I’ll focus on what I know and learn the rest as I go along.” Confidence is half of the game.
Click on “Leave a Comment” (above left) to share how a mask frees you (or not.)
xoxox
© Sharon Birke
201 697 1947
Email me
www.PowerfulGoddess.com
Glamour Portraits of the Goddess in Every Wife & Mother
23 Oct 2013
by Powerful Goddess Portraits by Sharon Birke of DoubleSmart LLC
in Best Books for Women, Boudoir Photography, Glamour Portraits
Tags: Betty Friedman Fountain of Age, Marilyn Monroe Look, NYC Central Park Glamour
Age is an issue of mind over matter.
If you don’t mind, it does’t matter.
Mark Twain
From Betty Friedan’s classic “The Fountain of Age”:
The insistence on seeing themselves as young, the denial of age, is the crux of psychological troubles in older men and women. The changes that age brings are so basic and so numerous that sometimes old defenses and solutions no longer silence the new kinds of anxieties that come with them.
However, even in tasks that demand the muscular strength easier to come by in youth, qualities that may emerge with age–wisdom born of experience, freedom from youthful competitive compassion, cooperation, empathy–can more than compensate for whatever losses that come with age. The real liberation of age is the amazing lightness and solidity of no longer feeling the need to prove oneself to be the best, to outdo the others, to compete–and of being able to fail.
Powerful Goddess Gina Bonati shares, “I am so pleased with what my body is doing in your pictures. It is a good, lithe, and strong dancer’s body I thought i had lost! I am discovering dance again and identify with what I see–the truth that I see and the truth that I sometimes do not see. Sometimes it is buried, sometimes invisible, sometimes it has seemingly died. But as these photographs show me, not yet, and maybe, just maybe, not ever.”
Click on “Leave a Comment” (above left) to tell us how you’ve gotten better with age.
© Sharon Birke
201 697 1947
Email me
www.PowerfulGoddess.com
Glamour Portraits of the Goddess in Every Wife & Mother
xoxox
10 Oct 2013
by Powerful Goddess Portraits by Sharon Birke of DoubleSmart LLC
in Boudoir Photography, Glamour Portraits, NYC Nightlife
Tags: Best Broadway Shows, birthday gift idea, NYC What to see and do, Pippin on Broadway
Don’t confuse fame with success.
Madonna is one, Helen Keller is the other.
Erma Bombeck
“I’d love to watch Pippin!” my husband said and I pretend not to hear–quietly thrilled to get a birthday gift idea straight from the horse’s mouth. His parents used to take him to watch all the original Broadway productions in his teens. It was like coming full circle dragging our own teens–wondering “Who/What is Pippin?”–to watch this revival of a young man’s search for fulfillment and happiness. For who wants to be famous? Apparently every human with the urge to eat and procreate.
My favorite characters in the show include the grandmother who drops her old crone cape for a trapeze act with a muscle man, the stepmother who artfully insists that even a queen is just another housewife and mother “Just like all you housewives and mothers out there!”, and the not so young widow who lets herself be bullied by the narrator, aware she’s getting old and can easily lose the part.
Ah, the yearnings of youth… the hankering for excitement and success that always remains a distant mirage! As we grow older yet continue to feel the occasional pangs of such longing, what do we tell those who miss the point of a grand finale stripped off fancy glitter and spectacular fireworks?
And what’s great about being less than famous?
1. You can be yourself–or explore your many selves–without worry if your choices fit the persona you’re supposed to be selling.
2. You’re not a commodity that’s hostage to arbitrary social rules and trends.
3. Your friends still like you even if you don’t tweet, post, comment, share, like,… at all.
Click on “Leave a comment” (above left) to add you take.
xoxox
© Sharon Birke
201 697 1947
Email me
www.PowerfulGoddess.com
Glamour Portraits of the Goddess in Every Wife & Mother
03 Oct 2013
by Powerful Goddess Portraits by Sharon Birke of DoubleSmart LLC
in Best Books for Women, Best Movies for Women, Boudoir Photography, Glamour Portraits
Tags: Best Movies for Women, Oscar Wilde books, Secret Language of the Fan
There are times not to flirt.
When you’re sick. When you’re with children.
When you’re on the witness stand.
Joyce Jillson
Is the art of flirting only for the young and single? What if you’ve been married too long and it’s too late to consult the Victorian guidelines for finding the perfect mate, e.g., “avoid a person with the same eye color as yourself, marry someone who is your opposite in physical and mental characteristics, choose a man with straight or thicker hair if your hair was curly or thin”?
A worldly older woman explains to a young husband the secret language of the fan in the 2004 movie “A Good Woman” (based on the 1892 play Lady Windermere’s Fan by Oscar Wilde.) How fun is it to communicate with your darling even when you’re at opposite corners of a party room? Handy, too, when you don’t want the kids to understand what’s being said across the dinner table.
A closed fan touched to the right eye: “When may I see you?”
Letting the fan rest on the right cheek: “Yes.”
Letting the fan rest on the left cheek: “No.”
Fan held over left ear: “I wish to get rid of you.”
Covering the left ear with an open fan: “Do not betray our secret.”
Fan opened wide: “Wait for me.”
Touching the finger to the tip of the fan: “I wish to speak with you.”
Half-opened fan pressed to the lips: “You may kiss me.”
Putting the fan handle to the lips: “Kiss me.”
Resting the fan on her lips: “I don’t trust you.”
Opening and closing the fan rapidly: “You are cruel”
Quickly and impetuously closing the fan: “I’m jealous.”
Drawing the fan through the hand: “I hate you!”
Hands clasped together holding an open fan: “Forgive me.”
Hiding the eyes behind an open fan: “I love you.”
Hitting the palm of your hand: “Love me.”
Hitting any object: “I’m impatient.”
Dropping the fan: “I belong to you.”
Twirling the fan in the left hand: “We are being watched.”
Passing the fan from hand to hand: “I see that you are looking at another woman.”
Click on “Leave a Comment” (above left) to share a language you speak only with your man.
xoxox
your man.
xoxox
© Sharon Birke
201 697 1947
Email me
www.PowerfulGoddess.com
Glamour Portraits of the Goddess in Every Wife & Mother
xoxox
09 Sep 2013
by Powerful Goddess Portraits by Sharon Birke of DoubleSmart LLC
in Boudoir Photography, Fantasy, Glamour Portraits
Tags: Mermaid Goddess Glamour, Myths and Fairytales, The Little Mermaid Fantasy
I must be a mermaid.
I have no fear of depths and
a great fear of shallow living.
Anais Nin
As we schemed on concepts for her portraits, Powerful Goddess Cora Poage said, “My husband loves to play on the beach.” Visions of her fair skin on blue captured my imagination, her body graceful as she “swims” while I keep my camera dry. For what man can resist a mermaid who beckons like this?!
I asked if she could stay out of the sun until her portrait session–quite a challenge through the summer, no? Marvel of marvels, she did!
Cora walked onto the set I created with the biggest smile, thrilled to find her favorite shade of blue as the fabric of our pretend ocean. Having heard she loves her chest and shoulders, I draped the fabric on her to reveal these favorite features while accentuating her delicious curves. Giant conch shells must double as nautical telephones where cellular service can’t reach. And when she confessed that “The Little Mermaid” was her favorite story as a young girl, I had to hand her a mirror and give her hair that Disney swirl, too.
Gee, Mom, your “Little Mermaid” is all woman now!
Click on “Leave a Comment” (above left) to share your siren’s call.
© Sharon Birke
201 697 1947
Email me
www.PowerfulGoddess.com
Glamour Portraits of the Goddess in Every Wife & Mother
02 Sep 2013
by Powerful Goddess Portraits by Sharon Birke of DoubleSmart LLC
in Best Books for Women, Boudoir Photography, Glamour Portraits
Tags: Bikini Season, I Feel Bad About My Neck book, Nora Ephron Humor
In the depth of winter,
I learned that there was in me
an invincible summer.
Albert Camus
Another summer ends and those of us who have been holding in our tummies throughout bikini season can finally exhale with relief–not only because the kids will be back in school soon! 😉
The late humorist Nora Ephron griped about aging in I Feel Bad About My Neck:
There are all sorts of books written for older women. They are uniformly upbeat and full of bromides and homilies about how pleasant life can be once one is free from all the nagging obligations of children, monthly periods, and in some cases, full-time jobs. I find these books utterly useless, just as I found all the books I once read about menopause utterly useless. Why do people write books that say it’s better to be older than to be younger? It’s not better. Plus, you can’t wear a bikini. Oh, how I regret not having worn a bikini for the entire year I was twenty-six. If anyone young is reading this, go, right this minute, put on a bikini, and don’t take it off until you’re thirty-four.
Click on “Leave a Comment” (above left) to share what you may regret (twenty years from now) not appreciating today.
© Sharon Birke
201 697 1947
Email me
www.PowerfulGoddess.com
Glamour Portraits of the Goddess in Every Wife & Mother
xoxox
19 Aug 2013
by Powerful Goddess Portraits by Sharon Birke of DoubleSmart LLC
in Boudoir Photography, Glamour Portraits, NYC Nightlife
Tags: Boradway Kinky Boots, Corset Boots, Joseph Campbell shoes
It’s a good thing I was born a girl,
otherwise I’d be a drag queen.
Dolly Parton
What’s not to love about a Broadway show saved by the glamour of drag? Especially since drag queens live and breathe the power of fighting for one’s passion, overcoming prejudice and transcending stereotypes.
Based on a little seen movie from 2005, with music and lyrics by Cyndi Lauper, Kinky Boots is about a bloke named Charlie who inherits his father’s outdated shoe factory. He finds inspiration in Lola, a drag queen, who loves to dress up but could never find heels to hold her manly weight. Their collaboration to develop fetishwear that captures this market niche saves his factory from the depths of red–in finances and frumpy style.
Harvey Feirstein who writes the book version says his interest in Kinky Boots is the question “What is a man?” Swishy Lola and seriously straight Charlie may be the unlikeliest of friends, yet life dealt them similar cards, parental expectations inflicting shared wounds. Is it any less difficult to forgive others as ourselves? Feirstein recommends drag as the best mask for all: “When I take it off, nobody knows who I am. When I put it on, I can be anyone I want.”
Click on “Leave a Comment” (above left) to share how you stand up for what you believe in.
© Sharon Birke
201 697 1947
Email me
www.PowerfulGoddess.com
Glamour Portraits of the Goddess in Every Wife & Mother
xoxox
05 Aug 2013
by Powerful Goddess Portraits by Sharon Birke of DoubleSmart LLC
in Best Books for Women, Boudoir Photography, Glamour Portraits
Tags: Self-care and Intimacy, Too Good For Her Own Good Claudia Bepko & Jo-Ann Krestan, Women's Empowerment Book
Between two evils,
I always choose the one I haven’t tried before.
Mae West
An excerpt from Too Good for Her Own Good by Claudia Bepko and Jo-ann Krestan:
Our fantasies are guides to our real selves. And unless we’re acting on the basis of those fantasies, chances are we’re not taking appropriate responsibility for ourselves. Unless we allow our dreams and passions to emerge, shaped by the realistic limits of our lives, we numb ourselves by being too responsible, too much a serious adult. In this state we usually become focused on acting in a parental way toward everyone else. Instead of following our dreams, we take responsibility for theirs. We feel frustrated and stuck as a result.
Many women avoid making changes or decisions because they feel they can’t bring themselves to hurt someone else. Hurting others is a reality of real relationships. We can’t be wholly involved and engaged with another person without sometimes hurting them because inevitably two people’s needs and impulses are different and conflict.
The bottom line is that unless we feel that the decisions we make are based on values that we’ve defined for ourselves, unless we feel we’re truly being responsive to our own needs and wants, our relationships are likely to suffer anyway. They’ll suffer from the underlying anger and resentment that we feel because we’re not pursuing our own goals. We can’t be genuinely responsive to others unless we’re responsible to ourselves first.
Click on “Leave a Comment” (above left) to share how you’ve been good to yourself. Happy August!
© Sharon Birke
201 697 1947
Email me
www.PowerfulGoddess.com
Glamour Portraits of the Goddess in Every Wife & Mother
17 Jul 2013
by Powerful Goddess Portraits by Sharon Birke of DoubleSmart LLC
in Best Books for Women, Boudoir Photography, Glamour Portraits
Tags: Kiss Me First by Lottie Mogach, The Affairs of Others by Amy Grace Lloyd, The Color Master by Amy Bender
When I read about the evils of drinking,
I gave up reading.
Henry Youngman
I’m curious to see what book’s in your beach bag! Click on “Leave a Comment” (left) to add to this reading list for long days and hot summer nights, preferably in an air-conditioned haven for me. Happy Summer! xoxox
Kiss Me First
by Lottie Mogach.
A web of sex and identity theft entangles a solitary young woman online.
The Affairs of Others
by Amy Grace Lloyd.
A widow rediscovers passion and possibility in the knotty/naughty lives of her building tenants.
Necessary Errors
by Caleb Crain
Imagine living in Prague and starting anew.
The People in the Trees
by Hanya Yanigahara.
Set in Micronesia, a doctor discovers the Fountain of Youth and other dangerous ideas when cultures collide.
Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations
with Peter Evans.
Conversations so real they could only be published way after her death.
xoxox
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