Beautiful Forever
Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful old people are works of art. — Eleanor Roosevelt Isn’t the thought delightful that we can take the blank canvas, paper, stone received at birth and learn to paint, compose, sculpt ourselves into works of art? Dapper and elegant Maurice Chevalier said, “Old age is not so bad when you consider the alternative.” In choosing his first option, remember, Forty is the old age of youth; fifty the youth of old age. – Victor Hugo While the years accrue, keep singer Gwen Stefani’s words in mind, “You’re not getting older, you’re getting more entitled to be your fabulous self.” Hebrew Senior Life reported that an older woman was once asked by a child if she were young or old. The lady answered, “My dear, I have been young a very long time.” To keep looking young as long as possible, here are tips that surprised me: Health.com suggests: Stop sipping through straws. EatThis.com advises: Finish eating before you’re full. Bona Fide Skin Care says the face can be kept from ‘dropping’ by keeping neck and chest muscles loose. One exercise involves opening the mouth wide and making silly faces. Also, roll shoulders gently. Here are maps some have found to The Fountain of Youth. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old. – Franz Kafka Those who love deeply never grow old; they may die of old age, but they die young. – Sir Arthur Wing Pinero There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will truly have defeated age. – Sophia Loren Succeed and Soar! Let’s ZOOM chat for 40 minutes, First THURSDAY, November 4th, 7pm Lots to discuss, including thoughts about “Eleanor’s Insights” and this month’s book, Caroline Myss’ Invisible Acts of Power, Channeling Grace in Everyday Life. Zoom Link will be sent day before Chat. See you soon! Image © Can Stock Photo / vectomart Thursday, September 30th is International Podcast Day. Great timing! My first podcast just launched on Yinz Are Good. [‘Yinz’ is Pittsburghese for Y’All or You are.] Here Tressa Glover celebrates the good stuff that’s happening around town, which is what she does so joyfully during the first ten minutes. Then Marshall Cohen, Laurie Moser and I effuse about next year’s Greater Pittsburgh Festival of Books. Mark your calendar for May 14, 2022. Listen in. Here’s why. This Week, Also Celebrate Sunday, September 26: Better Breakfast Day Tuesday, September 28, National Ask A Stupid Question Day Friday, October 1, Bake someone’s day on National Homemade Cookies Day Eleanor’s Insights Collection Succeed and Soar’s “Eleanor’s Insights” series is illustrated with photographs of ‘wild places.’ Art is available as prints, framed and on canvas as well as on journals, greeting cards, weekender bags, shower curtains, puzzles and much more. Shop Here
Freer Than Ever Before
Accept whatever comes and the only important thing is that you meet it with courage and with the best that you have to give. Eleanor Roosevelt Add to Mrs. Roosevelt’s advice: Watch whoever comes and meet certain folks fearlessly and with the best you have to give. This last of three Eleanor posts about courage offers insights and remedies for those who would trumple others to make themselves feel better. As Tara Mackey author of Cured by Nature and founder of The Organic Life says, people exist who will, “get you stuck in the past and focused on the negative, and in that mentality, you can’t move forward and you can’t succeed.” Antidote: First, see those troubled folks for what they are. Here are sixteen types, including Meddlers, Control Freaks and Perpetual Victims. Then, Set boundaries. Realize it’s not your job to save them. Treat your separation like the breakup it is. Read All Seven Tips. When breakup isn’t possible, as with co-workers, here are: Tips for Dealing with Toxic People and Dealing with 10 Types of Difficult Co-Workers In meeting gossips, narcissists, the passive aggressive, blamers and other unpleasant people along with the challenges they present, remember, The encouraging thing is that every time you meet a situation, though you may think at the time it is an impossibility and you go through the tortures of the damned, once you have met it and lived through it you find that forever after you are freer than you ever were before. — Eleanor Roosevelt Succeed and Soar! Eleanor’s Insights Collection Succeed and Soar’s “Eleanor’s Insights” series is illustrated with photographs of ‘wild places.’ Art is available as prints, framed and on canvas as well as on journals, greeting cards, weekender bags, shower curtains, puzzles and much more. Shop Here
The Future Belongs to You
The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. Eleanor Roosevelt Of our finest fantasies, Rev. Jesse Jackson said, “Dream big dreams! Others may deprive you of your material wealth and cheat you in a thousand ways, but no man can deprive you of the control and use of your imagination. Men may deal with you unfairly, as men often do; they may deprive you of your liberty; but they cannot take from you the privilege of using your imagination. In your imagination you always win!” Anthony Herrera said, “The best helper is a dream of what your life will be.” Rand Bennett added, “Make time for the things you love, the things you are passionate about, the things that you dream of.” ThriveYard describes a big dream as, “a bold vision of the future, a vision that both scares and excites you at the same time. It brings out your passion, imagination, creativity and a willingness to take and embrace risk.” Here’s David Khalil’s big, beautiful dream, “My goal in life became about accumulating wealth for myself in order to give it away. I had to increase my talents and capacity to achieve greater dreams and goals.” Here are 33 Ways to Help Beautiful Dreams Come True. which include writing your personal ‘I have a dream’ statement. What is your big, beautiful dream? After finishing Succeed and Soar’s Albert Einstein wisdoms series, I wanted a woman’s wise words. I’ve always been inspired by this post’s featured quote and love closing with more encouragement from Eleanor Roosevelt, the first lady who saw the United States through World War II, diplomat and human rights activist, The future is literally in our hands to mold as we like. But we cannot wait until tomorrow. Tomorrow is now. Onward & Upward! Sandra Gould Ford Presenting arts experiences to encourage, refresh, enrich creative thinking and inspire. Celebrate! June 27: National Bingo Day Bingo began in Italy in 1530 as a lottery. This fun way to make friends and, maybe, some money finally reached the United States 400 years. Enjoy a game or two. History of bingo. Also, June 27: National Sunglasses Day While this event exists to remind about protecting our eyes from the sun’s ultraviolet rays, National Sunglasses Day is also a chance to look really cool while staying safe. July 1st: International Joke Day Jokes are written or spoken words that make people smile or laugh. To be armed and dangerous with jokes, here are over 100, which include: What do you call a pig that does karate? A pork chop. July 2nd: World UFO Day exists to explore the possibilities that extra-terrestrial life may be visiting earth. While the History Channel’s Ancient Aliens Series provides lots of a persuasive info, a Pentagon Task Force has just issued a report on what it calls UAPs, Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon So, July 2nd looks like a great time to watch and discuss the original, 1950s movie The Day The Earth Stood Still or Independence Day, Close Encounters of The Third Kind or War of The Worlds. Eleanor’s Insights Collection Succeed and Soar’s “Eleanor’s Insights” series is illustrated with my photographs of ‘wild places,’ with no signs of people, except this debut image. Can you see me? This week’s photograph was taken while exploring Utah’s amazing Canyonlands. As I looked for images to accompany Eleanor Roosevelt’s words, this picture with desert and barren mountains meeting vast sky was ideal, even though –oops! — the sun slipped the shadow of my hands holding the camera into the lower right. Art is available as prints, framed and on canvas as well as on journals, greeting cards, weekender bags, shower curtains, puzzles and much more. Shop Here
Discovery
Your heart is the size of the ocean. Go find yourself in its hidden depths. – Rumi In 2010, I flew across the Rocky Mountains from Denver to Grand Junction, Colorado. There, I planned a speedy, one-week loop to Utah’s Bryce Canyon and back in time to catch the Amtrak home. But astonishing, sometimes otherworldly, landscapes kept stopping me. My rushed agenda could not fit in a world where rock whittled by wind, land removed by river and terrain broken by earthquakes kept stopping me, kept making me wonder: What were these places like before their surfaces were scraped and reshaped? What new forms will one day be discovered within the now-hidden depths? Here’s a bit of what The Monument taught about forces that create new structures and reveal deeper possibilities. This vast place is also called, “The Heart of The World,” which was once the bottom of an ocean. The sign says: The Great Fault The great valley in front of you was not always so low. Nor was the plateau behind you so high. Forces in the earth’s crust made them move to these positions, dividing the valley from the plateau along a huge crack. The fault runs right through here, extending far into the distance both to your left and to your right. In some places the displacement of the fault caused the land to break apart [left]. In other places the surface layers folded or bent without breaking [right]. If you find it difficult to see the fault it is because it is an irregular zone of slippage, not a sharp, clean line. Also, erosion and the roadcut have obscured some of the outlines of the fault. Notice the rock layers behind you – they have a very gentle dip, while those in front are nearly vertical. The Beehive Coke Ovens Because of my fascination with beehive coke ovens from nineteenth and twentieth-century iron and steel manufacturing, I had to find these monoliths. Here they are! The Red Canyon Another fascinating discovery was the canyon within a canyon. The accompanying sign says: Red Canyon is really two canyons. Most obvious is the broad U-shaped canyon with tall sandstone wall. But notice the smaller V-shaped cut in the middle of the canyon floor. Water has begun to carve into the hard metamorphic bedrock, but this old, pressure-treated and tempered rock wears away much more slowly than the fragile sedimentary canyon walls. By the time the small canyon reaches the depth of the larger one, all of the sedimentary layers above it will probably be gone. The little canyon is the V-shaped indentation at this photo’s top center. This tiny one will outlast the giant canyon surrounding it. BTW: Have you ever thought of flying strong and high as an eagle? Here are fascinating “Chipper” facts about these mighty birds. The Wanderings & Wonders Collection Shop Enriching, Uplifting and Beautiful Art Click Here