Women’s Empowerment | Powerful Goddess Portraits

The Asian Goddess

25 Jan 2017 3 Comments

by Powerful Goddess Portraits by Sharon Birke of DoubleSmart LLC in Boudoir Photography, Glamour Portraits, Women's Empowerment Tags: asian kimono, chinese new year, unique birthday gift

To sit for one’s portrait

is like being present

at one’s own creation.

Alexander Smith

To celebrate the Chinese New Year, I am thrilled to feature this Powerful Goddess who has made incredible strides in the past year, welcoming changes that have surprised and amazed herself–not the least of which was learning to befriend the camera lens. She writes:

My Powerful Goddess shoot was no ordinary photo session. It was an experience every woman should have. Sharon was meticulous about every detail, putting her heart and soul in everything she did. She made me feel like I was the most beautiful woman in the world! I used to hide from the camera but since Sharon taught me how to pose and feel photogenic, I am now comfortable when friends take my picture and feel confident they will turn out beautifully. Every woman should have this experience of feeling like a Goddess!

Sweet! I am deeply honored by your love and appreciation, Birthday Goddess–Many, many more wonderful blessings to you this year!

Click on “Leave a Comment” (top left) to share how you have surprised and impressed yourself, too.

xoxox

Give the women you love the most unique gift

of elegant and timeless portraits

with a Powerful Goddess portrait session Gift Certificate:

Managing Member, DoubleSmart LLC

201 697 1947

Sharon@PowerfulGoddess.com

www.PowerfulGoddess.com

Glamour Portraits of the Goddess in Every Woman

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The First Woman of Dior

14 Jan 2017 Leave a comment

by Powerful Goddess Portraits by Sharon Birke of DoubleSmart LLC in Beauty and Fashion, Iconic Women, Women's Empowerment Tags: Dior party dresses, NYC fashion week, Paris fashion, Womens Fashion Designer

Fashion is what you’re offered

four times a year by designers.

Style is what you choose.

Lauren Hutton

Photo courtesy of Vogue

Maria Grazia Chiuri is the first woman in the history of Dior to head the storied fashion house. Her runway inspirations bring together Flemish paintings, fencing, boyish girl themes with the talismans of house founder Christian Dior: stars, hearts, four-leaf clovers and tarot motifs. For someone who heads a trendsetting powerhouse, she wears no nonsense outfits possibly two days in a row, a testament to her pragmatism and tight focus on the work at hand.

In an industry where designers are notorious for last minute revisions, Chiuri is exceptionally calm in sticking to her original design from the first day it’s submitted to the pattern makers. She attributes single mindedness and zero drama in her work process to age and experience. Her runway dress rehearsals are organized and run ahead of schedule with few big pronouncements other than “Bellisimo!”

The staging of her runway is the opposite of theatrical, the minimalism calling attention to the details and nuances in her designs. She gave Dior a more female focus through the Instagram campaign “The Women Behind My Dress” which showcases the female employees and the warm family work atmosphere from its tailors to the PR team. Chiuri says, “I like women as they are. I don’t have an idealistic view of them. I want our merchants to dress a woman with a vision of what’s consistent with herself, not a brand.” And what’s her view on fashion’s cut throat competition? “You have to fight for what you really want in life. As in fencing, you don’t kill the other person—you touch the heart..” Evviva, Maria!

Click on “Leave a Comment” (top left) to share the style that’s right for you.

xoxox

Photo courtesy of Vogue

Photo courtesy of Harper’s Bazaar

Photo courtesy of Valentino

Photo courtesy of VS Magazine

xoxox

Give the women you love the most unique gift

of elegant and timeless portraits

with a Powerful Goddess portrait session Gift Certificate:

Sharon Birke

Managing Member, DoubleSmart LLC

201 697 1947

Sharon@PowerfulGoddess.com

www.PowerfulGoddess.com

Glamour Portraits of the Goddess in Every Woman

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The Year of Yes to “No!”

04 Jan 2017 5 Comments

by Powerful Goddess Portraits by Sharon Birke of DoubleSmart LLC in Boudoir Photography, Glamour Portraits, Women's Empowerment, Womon's Health and Wellness Tags: new beginnings, New Year resolutions 2017, Self love, women's health and fitness

Let every new year

find you

a better man.

Benjamin Franklin

I suspect my husband would prefer that I don’t take Ben’s quote (above) about finding a better man too literally. 😉 I also suspect New Year resolutions are just another way of making ourselves feel inadequate and never ever good enough. So how about pledging NOT to make resolutions in 2017?

Give “More” a break. Declare “I am enough, I have enough!” Focus on your strengths and build on what you’re good at. Love what you’ve got and find a feature to compliment each time you look in the mirror.

Eat what you like. Bless the food you eat instead of worrying about the calories and just choose from what’s made closest to the way nature made it: Fresh!

Don’t go to the gym. If you don’t like working out, don’t! Instead, make movement a normal part of your daily routine and walk to the farther ATM, bike daily to the grocery, take the stairs at the office, dance when at a party, learn to cook so you stand in the kitchen for at least half an hour everyday.

Enjoy the mess! If you’re simply a fabulous creative thinker who thrives with stacks of this and that here and there, just minimize the clutter and give away whatever you don’t use or wear, want to clean or take care of, and whatever doesn’t spark joy.

If goals you must, set baby sized ones that make you feel like a rock star (instead of a failure shooting for the moon.)

There will always be more to want and do or things we could’ve done better. Swap the “If only…I should’ve…” refrain to “Next time…” Because even when things don’t work out the way we want them to, no one can ever take away our power to choose to find the gift in whatever life brings our way!

Click on “Leave a Comment” (top left) to share your naughty plans for 2017. Happiest of New Possibilities, Dear Ones!

xoxox

Give the women you love the most unique gift

of elegant and timeless portraits

with a Powerful Goddess portrait session Gift Certificate:

Managing Member, DoubleSmart LLC

201 697 1947

Sharon@PowerfulGoddess.com

www.PowerfulGoddess.com

Glamour Portraits of the Goddess in Every Woman

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Not So Ordinary Women

14 Sep 2016 2 Comments

by Powerful Goddess Portraits by Sharon Birke of DoubleSmart LLC in Girl Power and Feminism, Parenting, Women's Empowerment Tags: #ordinarywomen, Anita Sarkeesian, Feminist Frequency, Huffington Post, powerful women in history, youtube

from Huffington Post

Anita Sarkeesian, a TIME 100 honoree, blogger and founder of Feminist Frequency, launched her Ordinary Women video series this week. Frustrated by the way history books weigh heavily on male accomplishment, giving students the impression that only men have made all the strides worth hearing about. Anita took the initiative to engage us through stories of women who dared greatly, so that our young girls may find their own voice, value their female experiences and find more role models as they learn to see themselves as important in their own intrinsic humanity.

The Ordinary Women: Daring to Defy History series’ first feature on youtube is Russian political freedom fighter Emma Goldman who shares my sentiment: If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be in your revolution. This series will feature four other women leaders and innovators from different cultures and fields of expertise who have been largely left out of history books. I’m looking forward to learning about Ching Shih, a fearsome 19th century pirate who commandeered a massive fleet. Yes, women excel even as villains! 😉 May our girls and young women expand their possibilities beyond obsessing about beauty and being supporting characters in the stories of men!

Click “Leave a Comment” (top left) to share how you find power in your own voice. Thank you, Anita, for the inspiration every girl needs!

xoxox

from Google Images

xoxox

Give the women you love the most unique gift

of elegant and timeless portraits

with a Powerful Goddess portrait session Gift Certificate:

Sharon Birke

Managing Member, DoubleSmart LLC

201 697 1947

Sharon@PowerfulGoddess.com

www.PowerfulGoddess.com

Glamour Portraits of the Goddess in Every Woman

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Like My Father Always Said

14 Jun 2016 2 Comments

by Powerful Goddess Portraits by Sharon Birke of DoubleSmart LLC in Boudoir Photography, Glamour Portraits, Women's Empowerment Tags: Father's Day, Father's day unique gift ideas, funny quotes

Be good

be careful.

Dominic, father of Michele

My favorites from Erin McHugh’s Like My Father Always Said, a collection of memorable quotes and gruff advice, sweet wisdom, and half-baked instructions on how to fix your life:

What other people think of you is none of your business.

You can have as much freedom as you can pay for.

The early bird gets the worm, but the second rat gets the cheese.

Perfect is the enemy of good.

The moment you think you want to change someone you love, dump ’em. You don’t like them for the right reasons and they won’t change anyway.

Never marry for money. Just hang out with a lot of rich people and fall in love.

Learn at least one new thing everyday.

Don’t let your mouth write a check your ass can’t cash.

The squeaky wheel gets replaced.

Before you speak ask yourself: Is it kind? Is it true? Is it necessary?

The only bad mistake is one you stick by.

Click on “Leave a Comment” (top left) to share your favorite man’s memorable quip.

xoxox

Give the women you love the most unique gift

of elegant and timeless portraits

with a Powerful Goddess portrait session Gift Certificate:

Managing Member, DoubleSmart LLC

201 697 1947

Sharon@PowerfulGoddess.com

www.PowerfulGoddess.com

Glamour Portraits of the Goddess in Every Woman

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Keys to No Makeup

08 Jun 2016 2 Comments

by Powerful Goddess Portraits by Sharon Birke of DoubleSmart LLC in Body Image, Glamour Portraits, Women's Empowerment Tags: #NoMakeup, #selfies, Alicia Keys, songs for women

The most beautiful makeup

of a woman is passion.

But cosmetics are easier to buy.

Yves Saint Laurent

by Paola Kudacki for “In Common”

Alicia Keys, 15 time Grammy Award winning singer, songwriter, producer and accomplished actress, a New York Times best selling author, entrepreneur and activist, wrote on lennyletter.com:

We all get to point in our lives (especially girls) where we try to be perfect.

The harsh, judgmental world of entertainment was my biggest test yet. I started, more than ever, to become a chameleon. Never fully being who I was, but constantly changing so all the “they’s” would accept me.

Before I started my new album, I listed all the things I was sick of. And one was how much women are brainwashed into feeling like we have to be skinny, or sexy, or desirable, or perfect. I was tired of the constant judgment of women. The constant stereotyping through every medium that makes us feel like being a normal size is not normal. Or the constant message that being sexy means being naked. All of it so frustrating and so freakin’ impossible.

During this process, I wrote a lot of songs about masks filled with metaphors about hiding. I needed these songs because I was really feeling those insecurities. I was uncovering just how much I censored myself, and it scared me. Who was I anyway? Did I even know how to be brutally honest anymore? Who I wanted to be?

I didn’t know the answers exactly, but I desperately wanted to.

I walked into the first shoot for my new album and this issue was front and center. The photographer Paola Kudacki said, “I have to shoot you right now, like this! The music is raw and real, and these photos have to be, too!”

I was shocked. Instantly, I became nervous and uncomfortable. My face was totally raw from the gym. This was my run-to-the-shoot-so-I-can-get-ready look, not the actual photo shoot look. So I asked, “Now? Like right now? I want to be real, but this might be too real!!!”

And that was it. She started to shoot me. It was a plain white background, me and the photographer intimately elating, me and that baseball hat and scarf and a bunch of invisible magic. I swear it is the strongest, most empowered, most free, and most honestly beautiful that i have ever felt.

I felt powerful because my initial intentions realized themselves. My desire to listen to myself, to tear down the walls I built over all those years, to be full of purpose, and to be myself!

Once the photo I took with Paola came out as the artwork for my new song “In Common,” it was that truth that resonated with others who posted #nomakeup selfies in response to this real and raw me. I hope to God it’s a revolution.

‘Cause I don’t want to cover up anymore. Not my face, not my mind, not my soul, not my thoughts, not my dreams, not my struggles, not my emotional growth. Nothing.

Click on “Leave a Comment” (above left) to share your personal revolution.

xoxox

No Makeup by Paola Kudacki

With makeup for “Queen of the Field”

for a billboard ad

for “If I Ain’t Got You”

All images from Google.

xoxox

Give the women you love the most unique gift

of elegant and timeless portraits

with a Powerful Goddess portrait session Gift Certificate:

Sharon Birke

Managing Member, DoubleSmart LLC

201 697 1947

Sharon@PowerfulGoddess.com

www.PowerfulGoddess.com

Glamour Portraits of the Goddess in Every Woman

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If You Lean In…

24 May 2016 3 Comments

by Powerful Goddess Portraits by Sharon Birke of DoubleSmart LLC in Boudoir Photography, Glamour Portraits, Women's Empowerment Tags: funny inspiring women, Gina Barreca If You Lean In Will Men Just Look Down Your Blouse?, orange gown, Sheryl Sandberg Lean In, women courage quote

Women who seek

to be equal with men

lack ambition.

Timothy Leary

I dare you to keep a straight face after reading this title of Gina Barreca‘s compilation of musings on life, love, and work:

If You Lean In, Will Men Just Look Down Your Blouse?

She makes her point in this excerpt:

I asked a woman, “What did you think about Sheryl Sandberg‘s Lean In?”

“At my job, if I lean in, guys just look down my blouse.”

For many of us, reading about wildly high-profile women is a form of masochism. It’s like tearing off our cuticles. We turn pages and wonder, “Why can’t I be more like her?” Then we think what we could have done better.

If only we’d been more focused as teenagers. (That probably would have been possible.) And if only we’d done our senior thesis at Harvard with Larry Summers, who’d have coached us to get our MBA at Harvard and then hired us at twenty-nine to become chief of staff at the Treasury Department. (Maybe slightly less possible.) I’m just saying that not everybody has access to the same playing field as Sandberg and that point needs to be recognized.

Until every woman has access to employment at wages equal to her male colleagues, until women are not told, as Microsoft CEO Sarya Nadella announced at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, that women should “trust the system” and rely on “karma” to reward them financially without asking for raises (as if that’s worked really well up to now), and until every child has a stable secure home, everything else sidesteps the real issue of equity.

I am grateful to this Powerful Goddess for her inspiration to brave new beginnings and define her own success. Click on “Leave a Comment” (top left) to share who holds the key to yours.

xoxox

Give the women you love the most unique gift

of elegant and timeless portraits

with a Powerful Goddess portrait session Gift Certificate:

Managing Member, DoubleSmart LLC

201 697 1947

Sharon@PowerfulGoddess.com

www.PowerfulGoddess.com

Glamour Portraits of the Goddess in Every Woman

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The Perfect Mother

04 May 2016 4 Comments

by Powerful Goddess Portraits by Sharon Birke of DoubleSmart LLC in Best Books for Women, Boudoir Photography, Fine Art Nude, Glamour Portraits, Women's Empowerment Tags: A Thousand Names for Joy book, Best Books for Women, Byron Katie The Work, peacock feather fan, romantic vintage lingerie

My mother’s menu

consisted of two choices:

Take it or leave it.

Buddy Hackett

This Powerful Goddess has fond memories of growing up inheriting her mother’s good looks, sunshiny personality and a romantic vintage trousseau. May we all be so blessed! For those whose gifts from their mothers did not initially appear this lovely, an excerpt from Byron Katie‘s A Thousand Names for Joy:

When my daughter attended her first of my workshops with a large group of therapists present, she was working on “the mother from hell”–which was how she had experienced me as she was growing up. She couldn’t bear to look at me as she was doing her Work; it was hard for her even to hear the sound of my voice. I was the root of her problem, she thought, and I was also her salvation; she had to ask the monster for help, which made her furious. At a certain moment she became very passionate and got right in my face saying I should have mothered her differently. I said, “That’s not my job. Mother yourself, Honey. You be the mother you always wanted.” Later she told me that that was the greatest gift I ever gave her. It turned out to be her freedom. I know the privilege of mothering myself. It’s hopeless to see it as anyone else’s job. Here’s what I’ve told all my children: “You have the perfect mother. I’m responsible for all your problems, and you’re responsible for the solutions.”

Click on “Leave a Comment” (top left) to share how you’ve been a good mother to yourself. And have the happiest one yet!

xoxox

Give the women you love the most unique gift

of elegant and timeless portraits

with a Powerful Goddess portrait session Gift Certificate:

Sharon Birke

Managing Member, DoubleSmart LLC

201 697 1947

Sharon@PowerfulGoddess.com

www.PowerfulGoddess.com

Glamour Portraits of the Goddess in Every Woman

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Met Museum Hack

30 Apr 2016 2 Comments

by Powerful Goddess Portraits by Sharon Birke of DoubleSmart LLC in Art and Architecture, Glamour Portraits, Unique Gift Ideas, Women's Empowerment Tags: Badass Bitches Tour, Best Mother's Day Gift Idea, iPhone polaroid printer, Metropolitan Museum NYC, Museum Hack womens tour

I went to the museum

of the heads & arms from the statues

that are in all the other museums.
Steven Wright

What’s a very unique and fun twist to your next visit to NYC’s Metropolitan Museum of Art? Museum Hack‘s Badass Bitches Tour of the Met! Not your grandmother’s idea of a museum tour, but she’ll enjoy it anyway with your mom and all your favorite women. Enthusiastic, educational and entertaining, a dynamic duo will explain art pieces by women in ways you have never known them before.

From defining feminism to incorporating untold tales of women represented in or who made the featured artworks, this tour guides you through objects, sculptures, paintings at the Met Museum that reclaim women’s rightful place in history and return our pride in the distinctive shapes of our bodies.

Without giving much away, here are a few photos and questions to get you curious about the fun difference a badass tour of the Met makes…

Outstanding women who never got their due: Who was really behind the success of Tiffany lamps and stained glass windows? (The ladies in front of it are our awesome Museum Hack guides, Mindy and Bex.)

While there are hundreds of penises on display throughout the Met, can there seriously be only three properly represented vaginas? And have you heard of the UK based sculptor whose work helps counter labiaplasty by giving women an understanding of how wide the spectrum of “normal” is in female genitalia?

A memento moment with my favorite sculpture at the Met, The Vine by Harriet Whitney Frismouth. Big thanks to Museum Hack and FujiFilm’s Instax Share SP-1 Mini digital polaroid printer.

Click on “Leave a Comment” (top left) to share your bright Mother’s Day gift idea!

xoxox

Give the women you love the most unique gift

of elegant and timeless portraits

with a Powerful Goddess portrait session Gift Certificate:

Sharon Birke

Managing Member, DoubleSmart LLC

201 697 1947

Sharon@PowerfulGoddess.com

www.PowerfulGoddess.com

Glamour Portraits of the Goddess in Every Woman

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Alice In Wonderland

29 Oct 2015 2 Comments

by Powerful Goddess Portraits by Sharon Birke of DoubleSmart LLC in Family, Glamour Portraits, Women Photography, Women's Empowerment Tags: Alice In Wonderland costume, best children's books, Fairytales, halloween costume, sex education for teens

Everything in the world

is about sex except sex.

Sex is about power.

Oscar Wilde

Scarier than zombies, ghouls and witches, my Halloween thoughts wander down the rabbit hole of sexuality having three know-it-all teens curious about tricks and treats. Excerpts from Deborah L. Spar’s Wonder Women: Sex, Power and the Quest for Perfection:

Until the shift in social norms that Helen Gurley Brown captured and Erica Jong brought to conclusion, women were still bound by the contractual nature of courtship: sex in exchange for a husband/protector, two cows or true love.

Women may lead themselves to believe that now that they can have casual sex, they are truly playing the same game as men. In theory, hooking up means men are now commodified as easily as women. In practice, though, it also means women are no longer in a position to ask for anything but sex in exchange for sex–not marriage, not a date, not even a phone call the next morning or a ride home.

Unless women actually enjoy casual sex, they may have struck a deal that works against their own best interests. Women may like sex as much as men. They may want it as frequently and in the same infinity of permutations. But the link between sex and relationship is stronger for women, as is the social penalty for promiscuity.

Ultimately, the question is whether women truly enjoy the freedom of uncommitted sex. Are women equally content to give and get sex for nothing, or have they given men what men want (easy and cheap sex) without getting much in return?

The widespread embrace of the hooking-up norm may be one of womankind’s greatest gift to men: No real commitment. No real feelings required. This is like a man’s paradise!

Click on “Leave a Comment” (above left) to share what you have gained in pursuit of this liberty.

xoxox

Give the women you love the most unique gift of elegant and timeless portraits

with a Powerful Goddess portrait session Gift Certificate:

201 697 1947

Sharon@PowerfulGoddess.com

www.PowerfulGoddess.com

Glamour Portraits of the Goddess in Every Wife & Mother

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Trick or Tweets

22 Oct 2015 2 Comments

by Powerful Goddess Portraits by Sharon Birke of DoubleSmart LLC in Glamour Portraits, Women's Empowerment, Womon's Health and Wellness Tags: funny tweets, Funny Women, twitter funny women, witty women

Women are meant

to be loved,

not understood.

Oscar Wilde

Early trick or treat to you! Because funny is my favorite sweet (no worries re calories!), here’s a basket of witty women tweets:

Click on “Leave a Comment” (above left) to add yours!

xoxox

Give the women you love the most unique gift of elegant and timeless portraits

with a Powerful Goddess portrait session Gift Certificate:

201 697 1947

Sharon@PowerfulGoddess.com

www.PowerfulGoddess.com

Glamour Portraits of the Goddess in Every Wife & Mother

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Passion Project

14 Oct 2015 2 Comments

by Powerful Goddess Portraits by Sharon Birke of DoubleSmart LLC in Boudoir Photography, Fine Art Nude, Glamour Portraits, Women's Empowerment Tags: Alliance Francaise NYC, Come As You Are by Emily Nagoski, French women, sex education, sexuality and intimacy, Wild Oats Project by Robin Rinaldi

It’s not true that

I had nothing on.

I had the radio on.

Marilyn Monroe

How do you sustain passion over the course of a long relationship? Is it possible to reinvent your sex life? Can you bring excitement, lust, and desire back after the sizzle fizzles?

On October 28th, Wednesday, 7pm, the French Institute Alliance Francaise (FIAF at 22 East 60th Street, NYC 212 355 6100) brings together the authors of two books recently featured on this blog. Emily Nagoski, author of Come As You Are: New Science that Will Transform your Sex Life and Robin Rinaldi, author of The Wild Oats Project: One Woman’s Midlife Quest for Passion at Any Cost will be discussing their relationship experiences, joined by Ian Kerner, CNN Health sex and relationship expert. Moderated by Dr. Sari Locker, sex educator, psychologist, and professor at Columbia University. Add your own two cents to the conversation and get a book or two signed.

FIAF’s The Art of Sex and Seduction series of talks is curated by writer and journalist Erica Lumière.

Click on “Leave a Comment” (above left) to share how you rekindle your own inner spark.

xoxox

Give the women you love the most unique gift of elegant and timeless portraits

with a Powerful Goddess portrait session Gift Certificate:

201 697 1947

Sharon@PowerfulGoddess.com

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Glamour Portraits of the Goddess in Every Wife & Mother

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Big Magic

01 Oct 2015 2 Comments

by Powerful Goddess Portraits by Sharon Birke of DoubleSmart LLC in Best Books for Women, Glamour Portraits, Women's Empowerment, Womon's Health and Wellness Tags: Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat Pray Love, Inspiring books for women and teens, Julia Roberts movie, TED talks on creativity, women empowerment

I can always be distracted

by love, but eventually

I get horny for my creativity.

Gilda Radner

I must have dozed off reading “Eat, Pray…” because I never did find out what happened in the “Love” part of Elizabeth Gilbert’s runaway bestseller. Her “Big Magic” book, however, captivated me to the very end.

Watch this TED talk on Your Elusive Creative Genius for an excerpt on the wisdom of recognizing that we are not necessarily the source, but mere channels of genius. By finding the discipline to consistently set aside time to show up for our work or art, we give ourselves the best chance of catching our genius or muse when it is in the mood to play.

To have a successful and lasting relationship with our creativity, Elizabeth explains how we must give up requiring it to pay the bills (and soon,) that we should always find whatever work is necessary to support it, and consistently make time to attend to it–if only to help us keep our sanity and zest for living. A bit more “Big Magic” excerpt:

Fierce trust demands that you put forth the work anyhow. Fierce trust knows that the outcome does not matter.

The outcome cannot matter.

Fierce trust asks you to stand strong within this truth:

You are worthy, dear one, regardless of the outcome. You will keep making your work regardless of the outcome. You will keep sharing your work, regardless of the outcome. You were born to create, regardless of the outcome. You will never lose trust in the creative process, even when you don’t understand the outcome.

There is a famous question that shows up, it seems, in every single self-help book ever written: What would you do if you knew that you could not fail?

But I’ve always seen it differently. I think the fiercest question of all is this: What would you do even if you knew that you might very well fail?

Click on “Leave a Comment” (above left) to share what you love doing so much that the words failure and success essentially are irrelevant.

xoxox

Give the women you love the most unique gift of elegant and timeless portraits

with a Powerful Goddess portrait session Gift Certificate:

201 697 1947

Sharon@PowerfulGoddess.com

www.PowerfulGoddess.com

Glamour Portraits of the Goddess in Every Wife & Mother

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A Fork In The Road

24 Sep 2015 2 Comments

by Powerful Goddess Portraits by Sharon Birke of DoubleSmart LLC in Glamour Portraits, Marriage & Relationships, Women's Empowerment Tags: divorce and relationships, glamour portraits, How To Give Advice, Japanese kimono

If you are

going through hell,

keep going.

Winston Churchill

The other day, a woman asked me what I thought she should do about her marriage. She has felt sexually numb the last few years to the point of nausea when her husband is in the house–a bit of an inconvenience when two people have to work from home. He thinks a trip to a sex therapist will “fix” her, for it is obvious to him that she is the problem. What man in his righteous mind will admit the possibility that his wife’s coldness, illness, or depression might be self-protection, the fruit of anger and built-up resentments?

But I’m getting carried away…

To be fair, who knows what really goes on behind closed doors? Does she really want to do something about her situation or does she just need to be heard? Is the problem she identifies the root of it all or a symptom of something else?

Discussing a problem with others helps us deal with it (eventually.) As consultant, it is tempting to say, “If I were you…” though much as we try, we can never really be them. While it’s easy to find similarities with our own experiences, any resemblance may be superficial and an analogy may not have legs.

Providing a range of scenarios and possible outcomes may be more useful than definitives that begin with “Do this” or “Don’t do that.” Time and thought are needed to weigh decisions against several dimensions and the personalities involved.

The first step in giving good advice is:

Do not give advice. Just listen.

Giving good advice need not necessarily mean solving a problem. It could be about making the situation easier to understand, shedding light and encouraging the exploration of different points of view.

Trust that they will arrive at the best answer for themselves in their own good time. Be comfortable with the silence and the not knowing. Affirm them with, “I can’t wait to find out what you decide!”

Every success and every failure changes states when perceived in the short versus the long term. While we might wish someone would simply rescue us when we’re feeling lost in the forest, this is the process we need to grow spine and courage, to find the light within us to illuminate the path, to make our own choice which fork in the road to take. No matter the journey, one great comfort is the certainty that all paths always, always lead us home to ourselves.

Click on “Leave a Comment” (above left) to share how indecision eventually led you to clarity.

xoxox

Give the women you love the most unique gift of elegant and timeless portraits

with a Powerful Goddess portrait session Gift Certificate:

201 697 1947

Sharon@PowerfulGoddess.com

www.PowerfulGoddess.com

Glamour Portraits of the Goddess in Every Wife & Mother

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Keira Knightley on Broadway

17 Sep 2015 2 Comments

by Powerful Goddess Portraits by Sharon Birke of DoubleSmart LLC in Boudoir Photography, Glamour Portraits, NYC Nightlife, Women's Empowerment Tags: Anna Karenina, Jane Austin, Keira Knightley topless, NYC Broadway Shows, Roundabout Theater, Therese Raquin

To be well dressed

you must be

well naked.

Oscar de la Renta

In Pride and Prejudice

I have a weakness for costume–the more romantic and dramatic, the better. Double that weakness when it’s combined with beauty and triple the fascination when there’s courage to do without it.

Keira Knightley, whose coming of age has been sumptuously chronicled in movies like Jane Austen’s Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice and the tragic Anna Karenina, now dares herself to grow further by facing her fear of live theater. On October 1st, 2015, Keira debuts on Broadway in Roundabout’s Theater Company’s Therese Raquin.

With exemplary fearlessness for a photo shoot with Patrick Demarchelier for Interview Magazine, Keira agreed to pose topless under one condition: the image could not be altered or edited in any way. She said, “I’m fine doing the topless shot so long as you don’t make them any bigger or retouch. Because it does feel important to say it really doesn’t matter what shape you are,'” the actress said. What greater romance can there be than loving what you’ve got?

Click on “Leave a Comment” (above left) to share the courage of a woman you admire.

xoxox

In Pride and Prejudice

As Anna Karenina

As Anna Karenina

by Patrick Demarchelier

xoxox

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Sharon Birke

201 697 1947

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Taking Chances

26 Aug 2015 3 Comments

by Powerful Goddess Portraits by Sharon Birke of DoubleSmart LLC in Boudoir Photography, Glamour Portraits, Women's Empowerment Tags: divorce and relationships, Esther Perel, funny marriage quote, second honeymoon, second marriages, TED Talks

To keep your marriage brimming with love,

whenever you’re wrong, admit it;

whenever you’re right, shut up.

Ogden Nash

Honey and I just got back from our very first honeymoon A.C. (after children) in Puerto Rico–sandy beaches, salsa dancing, and casinos that remind us of how lucky we’ve been betting on each other a lifetime ago and luckier still that we have learned to reshuffle our hand to make the most of the cards life dealt us since.

Like this Powerful Goddess, I did wear white. Not so much to conjure the days of innocence, but for the simple reason that white complements a good tan best. 😉

Lucky we did not swear NOT to talk about the kids during our time alone–impossible with Puerto Ricans who are big on family culture. Seeing young couples with toddlers and their oversized strollers did make us sigh with relief that we can travel far lighter lately.

We flew home in time for the second marriage of my husband’s college buddy. Having witnessed the dissolution of his first, we were thrilled to see him taking another chance with a woman who brings out his playful side. We sat among the witnesses, silently thankful that our own marriage has endured, shuddering at the thought of possibly having uttered the word “obey” at my own wedding?!!!

Esther Perel says all of us do marry a second or third time, though some of us do so with the same person in our personal evolutions. Her TED Talk on The Secret to Desire in a Long-term Relationship asks “Can we want what we already have (for toooo long)?” Now there’s a question where “I do” is a most meaningful answer.

Click on “Leave a Comment” (above left) to share how you have been lucky to bet on the same person a second or third time. A toast to the courageous!

xoxox

Give the women you love the most unique gift of elegant and timeless portraits

with a Powerful Goddess portrait session Gift Certificate:

Sharon Birke

201 697 1947

Sharon@PowerfulGoddess.com

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Glamour Portraits of the Goddess in Every Wife & Mother

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To My Younger Self

21 May 2015 2 Comments

by Powerful Goddess Portraits by Sharon Birke of DoubleSmart LLC in Boudoir Photography, Glamour Portraits, Women's Empowerment Tags: Andrea Reiser, Happiness, Parenting Teens, Quotes, What I've Learned In My 40's, women's wisdom

Youth is the gift of nature,

while age is

a work of art.

Stanislaw Jerzy Lec

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

Give the women you love the most unique gift of elegant and timeless portraits

with a Powerful Goddess portrait session Gift Certificate:

Sharon Birke

201 697 1947

Sharon@PowerfulGoddess.com

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Glamour Portraits of the Goddess in Every Wife & Mother

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Makeup and Make Not

30 Apr 2015 3 Comments

by Powerful Goddess Portraits by Sharon Birke of DoubleSmart LLC in Boudoir Photography, Glamour Portraits, Women's Empowerment Tags: #freshfacedbeauties, #girlyoudontneedmakeup, amy schumer, Motherhood, No Makeup Glamour Portraits, Parenting Teens, Van Gogh

My mother’s idea of

natural childbirth was

giving birth without makeup.

Robin Williams

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

with a Powerful Goddess portrait session Gift Certificate:

xoxox

201 697 1947

Sharon@PowerfulGoddess.com

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Glamour Portraits of the Goddess in Every Wife & Mother

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The Modern Cinderella

19 Mar 2015 1 Comment

by Powerful Goddess Portraits by Sharon Birke of DoubleSmart LLC in Boudoir Photography, Glamour Portraits, Women's Empowerment Tags: Cinderella movie, Fairytales, modern Cinderella, Parenting

Instead of a fairy godmother,

Cinderella needed a single shining epiphany:

“This is my father’s house.

I am the rightful heiress to everything here!”

C. JoyBell C.

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

201 697 1947

Sharon@PowerfulGoddess.com

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Glamour Portraits of the Goddess in Every Wife & Mother

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Thicker Skin

21 Jan 2015 3 Comments

by Powerful Goddess Portraits by Sharon Birke of DoubleSmart LLC in Boudoir Photography, Glamour Portraits, Women's Empowerment Tags: fine art nude, growing thicker skin, Parenting Teens, pearl necklace

The cause of trouble is that

the stupid are cocksure,

while the intelligent

are full of doubt.

Bertrand Russell

“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.

xoxox

201 697 1947

Sharon@PowerfulGoddess.com

www.PowerfulGoddess.com

Glamour Portraits of the Goddess in Every Wife & Mother

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