The Let Them Theory

 

If you haven't yet listened to Mel Robbin's podcast titled "THE LET THEM THEORY", seriously don't miss it, the next time you are cleaning up the house or out for a walk etc.

I have thought about it so many times and use it to redirect my thoughts to a better space always, as it has for the people that I coach as well.

There is a reason 15 million people can't stop talking about it.

Also, if you know anyone struggling with ADHD, the documentary called THE DISRUPTORS is fabulous too. It is a strengths based piece on ADHD and people of all ages and different walks of life, chime in on the gems of living with it. Dr Hallowell, whom I coach for is in it, as well as many other knowledgeable people in the field of ADHD.

If you aren't familiar with ADHD, it is a neurological imbalance, where the brain doesn't have enough dopamine. One of the secrets to managing it, is to do things we love to do, because the dopamine fuels our brain with what it is lacking. Exercise and sleep is also hugely important.

Hope y'all are having a nice summer, even amidst the rain and global chaos.

My heart goes out to so many people & places right now,

xo, Louise

Garden bouquet and photo by Caroline Fernandes.

Worrying About Our Bodies

 

If you haven't seen Good Luck to You, Leo Grande with Emma Thompson it is a very interesting movie about a widowed woman who has never had an orgasm. This is interesting in itself of course, but in her interview with Stephen Colbert, she discusses how critical all women are about their bodies. 

She poses an interesting question- 

How many women can stand naked in front of a mirror, without trying to improve the way we look?

I certainly can't.

I wonder how often men stand and inspect themselves when they are naked? 

I bet it's a lot less often then we do, and I imagine that when it does happen, not nearly the amount of negative thoughts run through their minds, as they do for us.

It's About Building Friendship

You don't have to be a swimmer to enjoy this lovely short clip about finding satisfaction, friendship and community as we age, even amongst strangers.

Many more wonderful Green Renaissance films HERE.  I could look at them all day. They are a passionate team of filmmakers on a journey to inspire change. Creating beautiful, meaningful stories, that we so dearly need more of, in these times.

I hope you're all having a nice weekend,
xo Louise

 

Living in a Fishbowl

So here is the rest of the story:


I didn't want to write about this before as there were two other people chosen to have docu-ads made about their life, to help launch the new product. They hadn't completed their filming until now.

One of them is a mid-lifer up in Canada who is a outdoors man, fisherman, and who likes to tell stories and ride motorcycles.

The other person is Samantha Richardson Alday, who lives in Alabama and is 47 years-old. Sam is a colon cancer survivor since the age of 29, who has been able to change her life with fitness. The ad agency put her in touch with me, as she was having the same pre-filming anxieties that I had. The first thing I said to her on the phone was "Sam we are SO having a bizarre parallel experience." It was really good to connect with her.

So now that her filming is done I can divulge what I didn't know was happening during my own filming- (that I was very happy not to know- until after the filming was over):

On the first morning of the shoot, Lauren Sally, the creative director, took my daughter out on the porch and asked her how I was doing.  I think my daughter explained that I was a little stressed, and hadn't been sleeping well, but that I was basically coping okay. Lauren then said to her, " I am going to tell you a little secret and you are not to tell your mom what it is until the filming is over- when I say "cut" to the cameramen, the cameras don't stop rolling. This is when I will get the most candid, natural side of her."

Omgoddie.

So it really was like being on reality TV.

And even when the cameras weren't around, I very often still had a hidden microphone on me that was capable of picking up every word I said. Or at least John, the audio guy could hear everything I said (and probably did?). One time I came out of the bathroom and said, "Oh my goodness, you just heard everything that happened in there didn't you?" He just smiled.

I would also forget that I had a mic on me, as did Liz Caven, the production manager. At one point we paused to firm up the parameters of my contract/agreement with the ad agency, in privacy, out in the mud room and I imagine the audio guy heard this whole conversation(?).

Oh well- I guess he has some insider information.

But the story doesn't end here.

Remember how I said that two branding people came from the food company on the 2nd day of filming and sat out on our front porch?

It didn't occur to me to wonder what they were doing out there, but after awhile I did. When I looked out during a break, they were watching everything that was going on inside the house on a monitor.

So crazy! - but understandable. They were there to keep an eye on things.

When picking out what color tanktop  I was going to wear for the next scene, the branding people took photos of me in the two different color options, sent them to headquarters, got the answer and the color decision was  made.

Pronto. Just like that.

Anyway, I decided when I took on this job that I was going to be an open book. I decided to just be myself and tell my story, even the struggles that I have faced in life, like having had an eating disorder in college and what that was all about and how I struggled academically because of undiagnosed ADD.

So I am not upset about the fish bowl I was in. It was just part of the creative process. I get it. Being a creative person myself I guess helps me to understand this perhaps.

It's all good. I totally felt like I was in good hands and continue to be in good hands, with all the footage they shot of me and now own. Part of this is my trust in Lauren- but the other part is just my comfort in myself and that I am not someone to hide who I am.

But still- having my story land on the market in mid-July is a bit scary.

What elements of those 2 eleven hour days will end up in my docu-ad?

This I will have to wait and see-

and keep my fingers crossed that the great experience that I had, continues.

Lights, Camera, Omgoddie

Day One

Memorial Day 4am: The shoot is to begin Tuesday morning and I still haven't fallen asleep. Mr- Fix-It awakes to pee and I get up, hug him and say, "I am SO scared." After snuggling him tight, I am able to sleep for 5 hours.

Amen.

I awake, wishing that I could meet with a professional for a pep talk.

No time for that.

I fret that the crew has bought plane tickets to Boston, and made hotel reservations and that I won't be able to deliver what I think they are looking for.

But deeper inside, I know that I probably can.

Tuesday 2:30am: First day of the shoot. I awake for good after 3.5 hours of sleep and linger in bed for eons. I try to calm myself by reading.

7am: Finally I get up and dress in the casual outfit that the food company has chosen, from photos of different clothing options that my daughter and I had sent them. I force myself to have breakfast and then put on some make-up. I feel anxiously excited for the crew to arrive and keep telling myself that all I need to do is..... be myself.

7:45am: The director and the production manager pull into our driveway 15 minutes early, followed by a cameraman.

"Oh thank god," I say to one of my daughters," There is only one cameraman and they said there was going to be two."

I'm so relieved.

8:00am: Another cameraman pulls up in front of the house. Uh oh. It turns out he's the audio guy though. He seems really nice. Everyone does. Next, a woman drives-up and gets out of her car with some cases, one of which is on wheels. "Who are you?" I ask. She says that she is the hair and make-up stylist.

REALLY? I had no idea she was coming but am relieved to have the tired circles under my eyes taken better care of.

I go inside and wash my face and she gets to work. She has this funky little spray gun that sprays foundation on my face and other neat tricks that I've never come across before.

I start to feel more glamorous then I've felt since I was four-years-old, when I wore my mom's high heals, too many pop-it bead necklaces and her fancy lady's hat.

Photo by Danielle Keefe

Scene 1: They switch the green shirt that I had put on to a periwinkle one, because of all the lush greenness outdoors- the sweaty, periwinkle t-shirt that I wore when I cleaned the house, in the heat, the day before.

Scene one is shot out on our front lawn, casually sitting atop the picnic table with creative director, Lauren Sally. She asks me to interview her on camera. What a smart move. This I can do. I start to relax. Then she asks me a gazillion questions about my life. One of them was about swimming and it becomes immediately apparent to me then that I wasn't chosen for this docu-ad because of it, as I thought it was. I was chosen, I think, because of my simple mindset and lifestyle and because I am an active, outdoorsy, mid-lifer.

Suddenly I wonder if I am simple enough. I also wonder what it was in me, that convinced her, that I can pull this whole thing off from just having had a skype interview with me. How did she know that I wasn't going to be like a deer in headlights?

I feel at home with Lauren though, and trust her and can see already that she is adept at bringing out the best in me.

So I begin to relax a little more.

Almost.

Then another camera man arrives.

Uh-oh.

I think that maybe the first cameraman has to leave for another shoot.

This is not the case.

Scene 2: Hiking at the highest peak in our town, which takes only 5 minutes to summit. It's a family hike with Mr. Fix-It and our younger daughter. Easy peasy except that it is pretty hot out. The make-up and hair artist Danielle Keefe, comes with us. I ask her if she is here for the whole day. She says that she is, in case I sweat and need a touch-up or have to have my haired sprayed again .

This is all so surreal.

I keep feeling like I am in a dream.

Then the crew and I eat a late take-out lunch at the house, out on the picnic table.

Scene 3: Knitting in my studio on a knitting machine. Lauren, the director, asks me to bring down my favorite sweaters so she can pick one for me to wear. She chooses one that I knit in the1980s. I say that I think that maybe it's too boxy. She says she loves it, so I put it on.

Scene 4: Knitting-by-hand out on the front porch.

Scene 5: A running scene on beautiful, stonewall-lined Baker Bridge Road in Concord. There is a tractor mowing a field in the background. Some of his dust billows up beautifully into the late day sunlight. They take several retakes of me stopping and putting my sneaker up on the stone wall to retie it. I wonder if the camera will catch the little hole in my sneaker, where my baby toe is slowly making its way through.

Sweet & petite production manager, Liz Caven, stops the evening traffic, so that they can shoot me running. I imagine that people probably think her car has broken down and she needs help. It feels a bit like I am in a Hollywood movie.

Scene 6: Swimming at Walden Pond with a handful of my swim team as extras in the background, including Mr. Fix-It. When the team takes off for their swim around the pond, the crew does some neat underwater shots of me swimming. I am in my element here and feel happy that the first day of shooting has gone well and that my comfort level with the project is continuing to grow.

Then the crew stays to photograph the Walden Pond sunset and Mr. Fix-It and I stop on our way home for a big bowl of soup and a glass of wine.

I go home and tumble into bed and sleep like a rock for 7 hours.

To be continued.

And Then

I got the job.

Soon an ad agency, their camera crew and food company branding people will descend upon my life for 2 days to film a docu-ad for a well known company's new energy drink.

They found me right here on Lines of Beauty.

It feels very surreal.

Never in a million years did I ever think I'd be in a commercial, especially at age 55.

I am not an actress ( I don't think)- I'm just being hired to share how I see life and tell my story.

I keep telling myself this- that all I have to do is be myself and tell my story.

Sometimes the magnitude of what is about to happen though feels a bit overwhelming.

But underneath it all, it feels like me and the right decision.

But holy shit.

Last F**kable Day

This week's post is a humorous video from comedian Amy Schumer with the best of the funny girls. If you haven't seen her movie, Trainwreck, it's very entertaining.

Thanks to Ronnie Citron-Fink at Econesting for posting.

More later! I traveled the long journey between Boston and Pittsburgh this week to drop our 2nd born at college and am getting my legs back beneath me.

xo!

To Love & Be Loved

Alex is a very creative guy and he clearly loves his mom Eva.

He has been wanting to find her a boyfriend so he took it upon himself to create this video for her in hope of finding her one.

Luckily for Eva he showed it to her before he posted it.

As Alex says, "Deep inside, we all want pretty much the same thing- to love and be loved."

But oh my god....can you imagine the task of having to sort through all the suitors who must be writing hoping to meet her?

The romantic in me can't wait to hear how this all turns out...

In The Winter

Sander's Beach, Bahamas

I realize that my intention as I grow older is to have as much fun as I can. Many times this means being alone unfortunately. I guess this is good however for growing old as I like to putter around the house by myself especially. Perhaps my love of aloneness is partly supported by the fact that I can still choose at this point in my life when to be sociable...

On the plane back from the Bahamas I read an article about Julianne Moore. She is one actress whom I really respect and feel a kindred spirit towards. Not just as an actress, or in the way she is choosing to age in Hollywood, but as a person in general. She said that what is most important to her in life are "people and relationships and language and feelings."

BINGO! Me too. Perhaps this rings true with you as well.

She went on to say that, " What you need in life is love and work. My mother used to say this to me all the time. Those are two really important things. And I don't mean work has to to be paid or love has to be a romantic relationship, but if you have people to love and stuff that you want to do, you're usually in pretty good shape."

It's similar to what my Dad use to say-

That it's important to have someone to love, something to do, and something to look forward to.

Especially during such a long, FREAKING cold winter such as this one.

GRRR!

It's interesting how comfortable 15 degrees can grow to feel when it's been -15.

Stay warm chickies,

it's only 20 more days till spring :-)

Actress Frances McDormand

It's been a doozy of a week but I wanted to at least hop on here and post this video. High five to you Frances McDormand. Let me know if you ever want to join forces :-)


In her conversation with Katie Couric, Frances McDormand says that "everybody is concerned about a smooth face". The 57-year-old actress eloquently explains that she feels nostalgic for a time she didn't even have. "The time before we regarded ourselves with such criticism but also with the currency that looking a certain age has."

Thanks for stepping up to the plate Frances.

Unbroken

If you can believe it, the computer that I normally blog on in my office is a Windows 2000.

Yep.

I like this computer partly because it has a huge screen and it's especially great for viewing things such as Pinterest.

I've also liked that, until now, I haven't succumb to moving on to better, hipper technology. For so long an antique computer was working for me, abet, a bit more slowly. When my 23 year-old nephew saw it this past summer he said "Wow, I guess we don't always have to be updating our computers."

Yes and throwing all the outdated ones, along with our cell phones, into a landfill.

Where I am writing to you from now, however, is on a much newer computer in part of the house that I don't heat in the winter, unless everyone is home. So it's freaking freezing in here!

Bet ya didn't know how frugal I am until now.

Clearly it's time to move this computer down to my office.

I'm just fearful that I won't get it all hooked up successfully...


Last night I went to see the movie Unbroken. I loved the story of Louis Zamperini's life, who traveled all over the map in terms of personal successes and incredible hardship and adversity. He died in July, at the age of ninety-seven, but luckily was able to see rough footage of the movie, with director Angelina Jolie, before he passed away.

One of my favorite quotes of his at age 93 was, "I have a cheerful countenance at all times. When you have a good attitude your immune system is fortified."

I think this is so true. Struggles in our hearts, and in our heads, can create upheaval in our bodies.

Last week there was an interesting article on CNN on aging. Researchers, not surprisingly, have found that the way we perceive aging influences how we age. Especially interesting to me were the findings that expecting memory decline can actually contribute to memory loss. It makes sense actually.

I am fearful of losing my memory, as it runs in my family, and I'm already experiencing it some. Especially in terms of word recall and forgetting if I've already told someone something. It's so annoying.

Something tells me that you can relate.

It's reassuring to hear from a neuro-psychologist, however, of the research on how unrefined, non-GMO, coconut oil is benefiting people with memory issues.

I haven't started taking it yet but I will keep you posted.

If I can remember. :-)

Have a good week everyone,
XO

Enough is Enough

Recently actress Ali MacGraw turned 75, looked in the mirror and thought, "Enough is enough." It was time, she says, to stop dyeing her hair.

Oh how I love this. I really wish my hair was gray enough under my blonde'ish highlights to have a beautiful head of gray hair.  Soon I hope.

Here is Ali before she stopped dyeing her hair. She looks so beautiful now!  Sometimes trying to look younger really takes away natural beauty.

Also this week the best article that I've ever read on relationships- lasting relationships come down to 2 basic traits. From my experience this is so true.

That's it for this week my friends.

Xo,
Louise

Mom Was No Poet: A Daughter Remembers Her Mother

"Sarge"

Happy Mother's Day. This week's post is written by my dear old friend Chris Radant, who wrote the original short story for the movie Home For the Holidays.
.........................................................................

We called her “Sarge.”

My brothers and I knew her unflappable love for us, as well as the part that was highly flappable. Her jaw would set, her mouth would pucker and rise up a half inch closer to her nose and her voice….ho boy, that voice. And words only sailors used. Hazel Kay Radant in the house!

Heels would click, children would salute and scurry, apologize and know full well that the love didn't go away.

She used to pull me up onto her lap, show me the “learn to draw ad” in the back of a magazine, put a pencil in my hand and things got really quiet. “Let’s draw pretty girls, honey,” she said each time.

I had a bedroom in the attic where I assumed the pitched ceiling over my bed to have been built expressly for me. I could rest my chin on the windowsill between my chenille-covered twin beds. With a pillow under my knees, I knelt there like I was taking communion and watched the drive-in theater’s movies.
In the summer, I could even hear them.
That’s how I learned about the big world outside our housing plan in Columbus, Ohio.

She’d call me down into reality, to wash the dishes, watch my little brother. I hated her cooking…food from cans and boxes, ‘50s style. “Set the table, punkin’ and get the box of mashed potatoes out for me and the squirt cheese.” We ate what was squirted in front of us… or so Mom thought.

All the quirks made life interesting and taught my brothers and me to be ready for anything. And thanks to Sarge, I can draw now. Today, I’m an artist and writer living on Martha's Vineyard.

Drawing by Chris Radant

Special thanks to the Martha's Vineyard Times.

Fall 2011 Fashion Forecast

It’s time for the seasonal fashion report. I want you to know that I bring you this more for myself than for all of you. Actually, I frequently write about what I need support with! Who am I kidding? Now that I’ve been out of the corporate world of fashion for several years I have this fear of wearing inappropriate, outdated clothing.

In fact, I worried about it even before I left:

What???  I LOVE this skirt! So what if it's from fifteen years ago and no one has worn the silhouette since the Clinton administration. My black wool, knee length, A-line, twirly skirt is fabulous I tell you!

Actually this season it just might be. Don't ever throw anything away that you really love.

Ninety-year-old Iris Apfel says that "Dressing is an exercise in creativity." An inspiring concept to keep in mind as we continue along in this journey of growing older and better.

Okay, so new for fall...

For fall, and winter, the waist has returned. Whether on a belted swing coat, a curvy dress or pencil skirt, the emphasis is on the waist. I know, I know. Many don’t like to hear this but I thought I’d at least pass it along. Think peplum silhouettes.

Or wear whatever the hell you want!

The season’s most distinctive looks, include big shoulders, Victorian lace, glitter shoes, fish-scale-like paillettes, and enough fur to keep everyone warm no matter how cold it gets. Ick. Double-breasted is the season’s most classic look. Now this I like.

Fall 2011's Freshest Hues

Also hot this season:

Chunkier sweaters (love.)

Tartan plaids
Choker necklaces

Lots of leather- especially leather leggings (really?) and leather dresses

Black and white

Orange, rust, mustard, midnight blue, and brights!

Clutches and snakeskin

Shimmer

Long coats and dresses with high slits

Mixed prints, graphic prints

Velvet

70s styling

To the knee skirts, midi and maxi skirts

White tuxedo jackets

Polka-dots

Military styling

Humm this forecast sounds a bit similar to the spring one I posted.

 Gawd I love this. How cozy can you get?

I also recently stumbled upon two good fashion blogs. Nowness, which showcases the most inspiring stories influencing global lifestyle, fashion, gastronomy, art, music, design, travel and sport. Basically if you are craving to know what is new and hip it's a great resource. And Advanced Style. This one I really like. Creator Ari Seth Cohen roams the streets of New York looking for the most stylish and creative older folks out there.

Also Tina has once again alerted me to a great documentary about 80-year-old New York photographer Bill Cunningham, a Harvard dropout, who pedals around on his bike taking photos of what people wear for his weekly column in the New York Times. 

Here is the trailer. The movie is available on Netflix. I hope to watch it tonight.

Aging Gracefully in Theatre

This week’s beauty is 81-year-old Canadian actor Gordon Pinsent. Being a keen admirer of older people, he caught my attention recently when I saw the movie Away From Her in which he played the loving husband to his wife (played by the beautifully aging Julie Christie) who is struggling with Alzheimer’s. One of my daughters thought the movie was depressing but I really enjoyed it because it was such a sweet, sweet love story and a beautiful moving tale that deals with memory and its sometimes circuitous, enigmatic path over the course of a long marriage. Away From Her came out in 2007 with good reviews and an Oscar nomination. I’m happy that I finally got to see it.

One of my favorite quotes from the movie was, "I'm thinking that sometimes you just have to make the decision to be happy. Just decide. Things aren't ever what you hoped they'd be. Not ever, for anybody. The only thing that separates one kind of person from another is there are some who stay angry about it and there are some who... accept what comes their way." ~ Olympia Dukakis, as Marian.

Pinsent says that "retirement is never a question. Retire from what?"

How many people get to say that?

Here the actor discusses the positive side of aging.

Keep it coming Gordon. I like you.

And P.S. maybe you and Betty White should have dinner? No?

Allowing Nature to Take its Course

This week's beauty is actress Julianne Moore who is 50. Every now and then I like to feature a celebrity who is aging naturally and give them the thumbs-up for setting such a public example for all of us of what it looks like to age without erasing our face.

Plus, Julianne's comedy "Crazy, Stupid, Love", in which she plays Steve Carell's wife (from the Office), is opening in theaters next Friday. Hopefully it will get good reviews as I 'm looking forward to seeing it.

Julianne has said she has no plans to undergo cosmetic surgery. She prefers to age naturally and allow nature to take its course. That's my girl!

Recently she was interviewed in Health Magazine and had this to say about aging:

• "My feeling is live and let live. But some of those procedures that make you look younger—I don’t know that they really made anybody look younger. I think most of the time they made you look like you’ve had something done to your face. Even with the laser stuff, the skin becomes so shiny. It’s like nothing sticks to it. It’s just shiny, shiny skin, and it doesn’t have a normal patina, so you’re like, "What’s the matter with them?"

• Look, it’s hard to age. Let people do what they want to do, but I do think that a new normal sometimes starts to exist where the cosmetic surgery itself starts to look normal, and we lose track of what a real face is like.

•  The big thing about being 50 is the bar is much lower. People are like, "Oh my God, you look great!” So that’s sort of good." "

• " I also credit my mother for keeping us out of the sun."

Keep it coming Ms. Moore :-)

Gratefully Green

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The simple, pared down lifestyle of the Johnson family, above, caught my attention on The Today Show this past week. All I could think of was what a different place this planet would be if we could all pay a little more attention to the waste that we create. And they do it so beautifully.

I am not a die-hard green girl but I honestly enjoy paying attention to the impact that I am having. It's a start. In the last few years, I've bought a second-hand hybrid. I rarely accept a shopping bag when I make purchases from a store, and I try to be ruthless about turning off lights. We also rarely get take-out in part because I hate all the packaging. In addition, my felted wool sweater, accessory and houseware line, The Hole Thing, is made solely from recycled sweaters. 

Years ago I also decided that I prefer the simplicity of just having two bras (one black, one white) and only a few pair of jeans going at a time. This was before anyone was worrying about the environment. I did it simply because it is easier to keep track of fewer things and it suits me. And it's inexpensive.

Americans SHOP and SHOP and SHOP and it's so disgusting. It's ruining our planet. We are a culture of consumers who shop to make ourselves feel better and to fill emotional voids, or to keep up with the Joneses. It's so pathetic. 

I can be guilty of this too....

If you have not yet seen the documentary No Impact Man, about a Manhattan family that takes a year off and rides only bikes and scooters and doesn't buy ANYTHING but locally grown food, it is a very entertaining and fun film to watch. Great for all ages. You won't be disappointed.

And if you have not yet seen Annie Leonard's The Story of Stuff  you can watch it on YouTube if you're interested. It is out in book form now as well.

Also Kim Urig, a former Lines of Beauty beauty of the week, has a great green blog called Our Daily Green that you might enjoy too. Not to mention my dear cyber buddy Aldra and her fabulous blog Consciously Frugal out there on the left coast.

  

When I'm Sixty-Four

When I get older, losing my hair
Many years from now.
Will you still be sending me a valentine?
Birthday greetings, bottle of wine.

If I'd been out till quarter to three
Would you lock the door?
Will you still need me, will you still feed me,
When I'm sixty-four?

My oldest brother Fitch, who lives on Bowen Island in British Columbia, turned 64 this past weekend and his daughter Jasmine made him this sweet clip to honor the year. Paul McCartney and John Lennon's When I'm Sixty-Four runs the first few minutes of it.

Happy birthday Fitch and to all you other end of November, early December, babies out there :-)

The Beauty of Aging Documentary

Something exciting is happening in the world of embracing aging, instead of dreading it… A wonderful documentary called The Beauty of Aging is currently being made in LA. The Beauty of Aging is the brainchild of documentary filmmaker Laurie Schur who created the idea for the project from her desire to find inspiring role models of aging for women. The one-hour documentary highlights the stories of active, extraordinary women over age 80 who are redefining old age with their zest for life. People over 80 are part of the fastest growing population in America. Through their creativity, sense of purpose, curiosity, and fearlessness, the women in the film show how fulfilling it can be to grow older.

Hedda Bolgar pictured above is just one of the extraordinary women featured in The Beauty of Aging. She keeps herself busy as a psychoanalyst and still sees clients four days a week. Here is the amazing thing though: Hedda will be 101 next month! (I kid you not). She feels that many people are afraid of aging and don’t see the tremendous gains that come along with it. She also said that it’s important to continue to be passionate about whatever it is that interests us, and to stay connected to lots of people.

How’s that for inspiration?

Passion really is huge for a fulfilling life, for all ages.

If you would like to watch a great trailer for Beauty of Aging click here.

Also,  From the Heart Productions, a non-profit sponsor of The Beauty of Aging is seeking donations so that the documentary can be completed for television broadcast and film festivals. From The Heart Productions is dedicated to funding films that are unique and make a contribution to society.

If you'd like to make a donation please click here.

Thanks everyone!

Aging Gracefully with Humor

This week's Aging Beauty is Chris who one of my oldest and dearest friends in Boston. She is 60. To her left is one of her oldest and dearest friends Wolf, who is 58. Chris is a talented, and very humorous, writer and artist. Wolf is a musician (and a very kind guy I might add).

What I love about Chrissy’s aging process is that she is doing what she loves. She is very protective of her energy so that she is able to do this. Chris is just naturally gorgeous inside and out, even prettier than her picture. The other night we had dinner and went to see the documentary Babies and once again I kept gazing at her and basking in her beauty. She also has that mid-western kindness, which is as big as the day is long.

Her daughter Cynthia, another aging beauty said, “My mother has always been very mindful of her health and what she puts in her body. She continually educates herself and others on ways to promote a healthy, happy lifestyle. I think what makes my mother even more beautiful, other than her physical attributes, is her sense of humor. I think my mother is even more stunning when she is laughing.”

Here is what Chris has to share about aging gracefully:

• There's no love like an old love. There is a sweet bond when you still love and trust someone you have history with. If you're lucky, that wonderful connection lasts long beyond what first attracted you to each other in youth. Maybe it's the truest, best love ever.

• There's a certain calm that claims you when you're older. You see evidence of time's fiendish plan. And by stopping your denial of life's temporal nature and realizing nothing is forever, each day becomes the day you celebrate being here.

• Today is the youngest I will ever be and it's important to enjoy it. I look into the mirror and instead of lamenting, I admire myself, and recite, "this is the youngest and most beautiful I will ever be." That goes for all my tomorrows too.

Thank you Chris and Cynthia :-)