It’s been about 5 months since I started this website.The year prior to starting this site brought about tremendous change to my life. Both of my parents passed away and both of my kids went off to college. Needless to say, it’s been a difficult time. For the past five years I have wanted to start a website, but I was truly “sandwiched”. My mother was disabled with Parkinson’s. As a daughter and a Registered Nurse I flew back to see my mom every 2-3 months. I thought it would get easier when my kids got into high school, but not so. And the whole applying to college thing with visiting colleges, college prep, etc., was unbelievably consuming. I didn’t know what a tremendous void I would feel when my youngest son left for college. My role of caregiver that I have had for twenty some odd years is over.
In the section About Me of this website, I talk about the energy medicine that I have personally experienced and shared with others. It has helped me understand a lot more of my life’s journey than I ever thought I would. In the process of unraveling the traumas that I carried in my DNA from my parents and their parents and their parent’s parents, etc., life began to change. I began to have hope and I began to dream of the things I had always wanted to do, but didn’t, among many other good things.
When I was in elementary school, I loved fashion. When I was in 6th grade I had my mom’s dress maker make a pair of black velvet gaucho pants for me because I had a black velvet bolero jacket. There was a charity function coming up for my school and I wanted to wear it with a white frilly shirt and black patent leather boots. I was inspired by Dr. Zhivago. The Charity event was a screening of Dr. Doolittle. When I went out in to the lobby to get some candy, there were photographers there and they took my picture. The next day I was in the fashion section of the newspaper!! True story.
I was not “fortunate” to be able to follow my passion back then, but I do believe that everything happens for a reason. If I hadn’t been a nurse and witnessed so many deaths, I would never have felt as close to spirit. I wouldn’t have been as inspired to be at my parent’s bedsides while they were sick and dying. I know that being there was not only healing for them, but for me, and for my children, and my children’s children. I broke generational patterns of pretending that things weren’t bad, or that they didn’t exist and most importantly, of forgiveness. I broke patterns by being by their sides lovingly and engaged until they took their last breath.
Now, with my life all to myself, I have arrived back at the passion that I have had since I was at least 10 years old. But now, it’s not just about fashion. It’s about the fact that I am 60, and I have a lot more of my life to lead. It’s about the fact that I am finally at a point where I can do what I want, and yet society tells me that I am too old. When I was in my 20′s and 30′s, I was working. In my late 30′s, 40′s and 50′s I was raising kids. I didn’t go to lots of Galas where I got dressed up, or follow designer fashions, nor could I even afford them.
And, I know I am not alone. I look at Magazines and I think, why is there no one from my generation? Where are the women who have contributed to society and have made this world a better place? Why is it only young people when it is probably only the young AND wealthy who can afford the clothes anyway? What have they done to be “famous”? What has happened to our values? I give a lot of credit to someone like Kim Kardashian who has built a brand out of being pretty. She is pretty and I don’t think she is harming anyone, but I am disappointed that there isn’t more. When I was young in the ’60′s, fashion made a statement about who we were as people. It was a statement that the Viet Nam War was wrong. It was a statement that younger people wanted to see change in the government and the way things were run in this country.
Anyway, my purpose and my new crusade has begun. My crusade is to bring dignity and respect back to our culture. My target is any woman who feels that she is invisible. There are others out there also fighting for the same cause: the Fabulous Fashionistas, the Idiosyncratic Fashionistas, the Style Crone, Margaret Manning of Sixty and Me, and lots of other bloggers. If I can make a difference with my blog in just one person’s life, then I have accomplished something.
I call it my passion with a purpose. Even though I am about forty years delayed, I am still an optimist and I still want to try and “save the world” I still believe that people can stand out and be respected for their ideals rather than some outlandish thing they are doing. My passion is about helping every women feel the passion within themselves to stand out and stand up for what she believes and who she is. Fashion is an expression of yourself. You design who you are every day that you get dressed, and that takes creativity. No matter how old you are, there is always creativity and love in your heart. It is never too late to start designing a new you. My dream is to help others find that passion, no matter what it is. Every day you are alive is another day to do something different, another day to embrace something new, and another day to make a contribution to the world and to your self.
So, Happy New Year to All. May next year help you find your dreams, your passions, or whatever it is that you born to do.
I think we all have a purpose and we all want is right for the higher good. I pray that next year, more and more people find it and that I can help just a little.
Happy 2014!!!