They write it because we want to read it!

I was getting my hair cut the other day and I forgot to bring a book to read . I picked up a magazine to just pass the time. I was shocked as I read about all the famous Movie Stars and all about their lives. But what really surprised me was the one article that talked about what was in the female Movie Star's purses. I mean, I know they are going to write about their hair, who does their make-up. The designer for their dresses and how much each piece of their jewelry cost but...there was a whole two pages about what was in their purses! I just couldn't believe it. Do I care what is in their purses? NO But the world does, some one wants to know everything about their lives...YES, even down to what is in their purses.

It just made me stop and think. Do I compare, or spend energy on these so called STARS? If I do then what would be the purpose. For over 25 years I have been counseling with women who compare themselves to everyone that is richer, prettier, more successful than them. I have at times, looked at a Star and wondered how did they get so lucky? But that was years ago when I didn't really know what you read isn't always necessarily the truth. When you really stop and evaluate the Stars and their lives or lack of one, it makes me feel more sorry for them, than wanting to be like them.

We need to remember to stop comparing ( I am talking to myself again ), stop wasting time on looking what others have and what we don't have. Try to enjoy every single blessing we have. When I do that, I feel so much better, my perspective is clearer, and I realize what I have ....Faith, Family, Friends. And that makes me one of the richest women in the world!

"It's not who you are that holds you back, it's who you think you're not."   ~Anonymous

"Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy."  ~Norman Vincent Peale

Fantasy...good and bad?

When the kids were little, I would always say... "now remember some things aren't real, like fairy tales!"  I loved a good fairy tale as much as the next person but... I worried that if they got too into the fantasy world, that they would be disappointed in the real world. I didn't watch soap operas for that reason.
When I was a young girl, my grandmother, mother and I would always watch General Hospital every day after school. I remember one particular time when we were all there watching on TV and my younger brother was playing with his Fisher Price toy right by us. At one point, we found out that someone in the show was pregnant, we were shocked! My mother said " oh my gosh, who could the father be? " To which my LITTLE ( maybe 4  years old ) said, " oh it's Bobby's baby, didn't you know?" I will never forget my Mom's face and how shocked she was, that my brother was even paying attention. That was a great lesson to me...if you don't want your children to see it, listen to it. or do it, then you have to be the one that turns it off or doesn't do it yourself!

I especially drilled into my girl's heads, that life isn't always like a fairy tale or fantasy...some times it is very hard and frustrating. I want them to know that True Love is much, much better than any FANTASY, could be. But since it is hard. I think the danger in all the FANTASY that is all around us (like soap operas, movies, pornography, chat rooms, Internet dating, and on and on) that we will never be satisfied with REAL LIFE! There is a great danger in always pretending to be something you are not. It seems so innocent but it ISN'T! And there have been many, many relationships, marriages and lives ruined because of it. So.. I guess I am a bit cautious!

Now no matter what I said to Lauren as a kid, she still loves the fairy tales. Now as I have mentioned, she is a photographer and like me, some times she gets her best inspiration in the middle of the night. Her latest creative photo shoot that she dreamed up, was doing the four seasons, you can see on her  work on her blog...www.adayinwashington.blogspot.com, it is neat to have her tell us about it, and then a day or two later, actually see how she made it happen. Now she has come up with the idea of making a photo shoot of the Modest Modern Disney Princesses. I was wondering how she is going to pull it off and yet she did! Here is the first one of Ariel.

 

"Fairy Tales are more than true; not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten."    ~G. K. Chesterton

"He is rich who owns the day. There is no king, rich man, fairy, or demon who possesses such power as that."    ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again."  ~ C. S. Lewis