• make-up
• mom’s fancy shoes
• princess clothes
• fancy hats

And we look so pretty

Then we get older and we have to work at making things go away:

• exfoliating cream
• foot scrub
• lazer hair removal (on the face, no less!)
• wrinkle minimizer

And we look so pretty!

Funny how life changes our direction!

Happy Beautiful YOU!

That’s right, you know you will wake up and become the incredible and fabulous woman you are just as soon as you down that first cup of coffee and you let that warm, dark java slide into your veins waking up every bit of you.  Some mornings you don’t even want to shower first, the coffee is the bomb and you are looking for the explosion!

Today was just such a morning, wearing my sexiest brown fuzzy housecoat and barely able to open my eyes, I began the tasks involved with making that first pot of coffee… mmmmm sweet anticipation!

Filter, check!

3 scoops of coffee, check!

Fill Carafe with water, check!

Pour water into back of coffee maker, check!

Turn on Coffee pot, check!

Walk away in anticipatory glee, waiting for enough to pour forth to pull pot out and grab that first warm, wonderful dark liquid!

So back into the kitchen I go, excited to partake in my first morning coffee and WHAT?

Sure enough, another Meri Moment – the step I missed…….

sigh

Put coffee carafe back under filter basket, OOOPPPPPSSSSS!

Coffee and grounds are slowly running their course discovering the dips and tilts in the counter creating a lovely coffee river headed gravitationally toward the small space between the counter and the fridge….. YIKES!

Ever wonder why when you are having a Meri Moment, your brain seems to have taken a vacation?

No worries, a clean-up, and a new pot and I am raring to go – only a small 30minute delay!!!!

Have a perfectly ground, sweet day!

You have cleaned house, changed and washed diapers, laughed through tragedy, cried with compassion and hugged with love and passion.  You have brought emotion where none existed and you have transformed yourself time and again to fit into the mold someone else has created for you!  You have allowed the world to define you – Wife, Mother, Grandmother, Student, Girlfriend, but never just YOU!

Now is the time – shake off that rattling chain of definition and shine.  Define yourself!  Here you are with all your wisdom, talent, experience, heart, passion, and beautiful greatness.  You are packed full of all you need to show your vivacious, bodacious and shining self to the world.  Here is what to do.

Empty your backpack of memories of any spoiled milk and rotting apples, toss that bag into the washer and refill it with the gratitude and gratefulness of every cherished and amazing memory you can find.  Chuck out the garbage that does not inspire, enthuse and energize.  Move directly to GO and get yourself a cheeky fun and energetic attitude.

WHY?  Because life is waiting for YOU – show the world how to treat YOU and continue to BE that shining star, that women of presence that joyful and gorgeous woman you KNOW is inside.  Leave behind the bitter, the angry, the pissy, and the sad and make a choice – TODAY – to grow into just who you want to be.  Then practice it until you live it without thought!

LOVE YOU!

The making of others ‘renowned’ is his game.

He works like a horse in supporting success

For the clients he loves in every business.

His deep voice is calming, a rich southern drawl

That lifts and champions folks one and all.

His twitter persona and Facebook appeal

Are humble and gracious and simply ideal

For someone in his unique line of work

That helps throngs of people, from stuff that they shirk.

Stuff that they gladly put aside without care

For the importance of SEO, Social media fare!

This Knight is just brilliant in act and in thought

And gives of his time and talent a lot

To people who need him, time and again

At tweet-ups and conferences, like no other men

He gives solutions to all – truly a gift

So his client businesses will no longer drift.

Celebrate, champion, cheer to his task

Bear you a smile and lift up your flask.

Because our Knight Sir John Celebrates new

Another of years, birthdays are not few!!!

But age has no bearing, no sort of a curse

For his knowledge puts money right in your purse.

See, its experience that offers true results

Just ask the clients to whom he consults!

So, Sir John if you read this, be strongly aware,

We like that you’re old and losing your hair!

Happy Birthday from the two Soul Sisters!!!

You can find him at:

John Lusher Consulting
Helping businesses, individuals and organizations develop and use social media network tools to build long lasting relationships.

You know, we all go through moments when we take a hard look in the mirror and a screaming voice in our head says – ‘OMG WHERE DID THIS OLD PERSON COME FROM?’ We analyze ourselves in disgusting detail all the time, picking apart each and every little thing about our looks until we’re decidedly certain we’re used up! And that’s so far from the truth!

I love getting older.

• No more pleasing others at the expense of self
• Knowing how to diplomatically speak my mind
• Standing up for myself in situations where I know it’s right
• Finally believing I’m worthy of being treated with dignity, grace and care
• BEST OF ALL…loving all I’ve become

Guess what young ones… when the brutal insecurity and shallow surface impressions are all gone, the content’s what matters.  No sense filling a beautiful duvet cover with gravel – working on the content within is what makes me glad I am getting older; I’ve had a load more time to make that content the highest quality it can be.

ROCK your world and cherish all experience, because it’s building kick-butt content for becoming the most amazing woman you ever imagined!

Woo Hoo….. I’ll have a margarita please!

What self-respecting adult woman uses that for an excuse? I have been everywhere, upstairs, down stairs – I have a shoe rack for crying out loud and they’re nowhere to be found! ARGH! Okay, now I am REALLY late and I have to say, I am NOT going to go if I am 5 minutes longer.

My shoes are bigger than my daughters’ feet, there is no way they could have borrowed them. Heck, I haven’t even had company who would have the right size for taking them. I LOVE things in order, I LOVE a place for everything, WHY are they not in their place????

AUGH, THERE they are… who on earth would wrap them into a plastic bag and shove them into the shoe cubby? Heck, no one but me cleans up around here…. sigh… it’s official, I am late AND I have lost my mind. Mind, Mind, where are you? Come back again, you used to be so bright and with it and could remember EVERYTHING! Helllooo, are you in there????

Time to make a late entrance – I HATE being late, but not to go would be an insult…. so this is why women of a certain age tend to be fashionably late. Life is like that, isn’t it? Perspective and compassion sometimes come to those who must feel the pain first before they understand. Oh Mama, now I understand some of the other women in our lives who have gone before us…and I love them all the more!

That’s gravity, baby and you earned every drooping, sagging bit of it – Here’s what it means:

A woman who put babies first before self!
Gaining and losing, and gaining and losing but no matter the lbs, looking sexy in every size outfit!
You are finally getting the cleavage you have been dreaming about (if you pack ‘em right)!
You have earned each and every little droop through experience and living life!

Any way you look at it – YOU’RE REMARKABLE!

So bear that Décolletage roll those saggy girls up, tuck them into a colourful party bra, and be proud that you belong to an exclusive club of beautiful women who are shaking up the planet with Baby Boomer opportunity never before experienced!

Then, when you least suspect it, you catch a glimpse of your profile in a mirror and the light is ‘just right’ for you to see the two-inch long single hair sticking out of your neck, but alas, you can’t inconspicuously do a thing about it because you’re trapped in an elevator with 10 other people on your way to the 25th floor!  You wonder how many of them noticed?!  Here’s hoping you find that hair later AND your tweezers – don’t forget the reading glasses and a magnifying mirror!

Do I dare share the topic of facial hair or wait for the shock of unusual body hair to wear off?  YES, I said facial hair – we all knew a mom or two in school who had a fine moustache and we all whispered quietly to each other about the masculinity of it all….. and then….. we find out years later that almost EVERY woman has this facial hair eventually; including us!  So why didn’t we notice?  Because the rest of the moms were trimming, shaving or using expensive creams to remove the darned stuff!

Yes, the forties are much like those of teenage male puberty, but we still have a lot going for us….wisdom of maturity, beauty, strength of character, genuine smiles, heartfelt compassion and a rockin’ future of authentic and genuine US!

Ever notice when you’re trying to talk these days, the fellow in the room seems to hear what he wants to hear?

It is true, you know, beauty comes with age.  It’s an oft mis-understood thing, ‘beauty’ because for many years you’re convinced it’s all about fitting into some crazy societal norm and you beat the living daylights out of yourself when you can’t seem to fit your square peg into that round hole!

The media and the images all around us scream; “look like this” and “Be like that”.   If our hair isn’t straight enough or curly enough, if our body isn’t tall enough or short enough, if our skin isn’t light enough or dark enough we look longingly into the mirror and curse ourselves for being what we are.

We fail to see the bodacious amazing person that’s really there and look for someone who isn’t in the mirror.  We long for a body, hair, eyes, skin, features that are not ours. Then we turn a certain age and we come to the realization that no matter who we are, every woman is beautiful! I LOVE THIS AGE!!

It’s great to get older, to have experiences and situations that teach us about true rockin’ beauty, the real deal.  Beauty isn’t allowed only if it’s packed into a 5 foot 11 inch anorexic body with huge boobs!  Beauty isn’t about the makeup and about the hair colour or style or about the clothes, that’s all just presentation.  Like a great meal, yes the presentation makes it appealing at the onset but it if tastes like crap presentation means nothing.

True beauty is compassion, loving, peacefulness, heart, smiling, holding dear to your values and not selling out when it doesn’t feel right.  Beauty is about standing up for what you believe, caring for humanity, children and aged, loving the planet, guarding your health, and recognizing the beauty in others.

YOU are a bodacious, vibrant, exciting and beautiful individual.  YOU are the champion of your own life, your world your internal state.  YOU get to choose what beauty is, and the neatest thing in the world is that you’ve always had that choice.  It is all about choice – YOURS!  Be the beauty you are today and show it off, love it, see it in the mirror and celebrate all those things about you as seen by the people who love you.  Take a closer look at YOU!

Now raise a glass to YOU, you beautiful woman!  With age comes beauty, the kind you can truly recognize and see.  The only kind that really makes a difference!