Tag Archives: Beauty

Sense of Smell…

25 Saturday Sep 2010

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© Eleven Orchids Photography

The sense of smell can be extraordinarily evocative, bringing back pictures as sharp as photographs of scenes that had left the conscious mind.

I visited my maternal grandfather only a couple of times, but during each stay he smoked White Owl cigars. Since his passing over thirty years ago, every time I smell a cigar I am instantly transported back to those few, special moments I had alone with him. The most memorable one was when he taught me how to draw a five-pointed star. I traced his pencil lines following his simple directions: across town, downtown, uptown, downtown, and back home again.

Southern Cross…

14 Tuesday Sep 2010

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© Nicolo Sertorio

When you see the Southern Cross
For the first time
You understand now
Why you came this way…

Crosby, Stills & Nash (song)

I saw the Southern Cross for the first time floating on my back in the pool at the Copacabana Palace Hotel in Rio. The constellation’s five stars directly overhead were completely visible in the jet black sky. I stared at the heavens transfixed, bobbing in the water with the soothing sounds of the surf breaking onto the beach just across the Avenida Atlântica, and knew that I would remember that moment forever.

Copacabana Palace Hotel, Rio

Model – Lauren Currie

Niterói…

11 Saturday Sep 2010

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© Joan Currie - MAC

Reason is the enemy of imagination.
A razão é inimiga da imaginação.
Oscar Niemeyer

When I visited my daughter in Brazil, she promised to show me the wonders of Rio de Janeiro. Although I adored that city, another city across Guanabara Bay, called Niterói, was even more enchanting. Oscar Niemeyer’s flying saucer-like Museu da Arte Comtemporânea (MAC) dominated the skyline. Its location overlooking the Bay toward Rio reminded me of the view of San Francisco from Sausalito. After examining several art exhibits, we strolled along the shore from the MAC to the bustling ferry building.

On the second floor balcony we feasted on Bob’s hamburgers and Guaraná sodas and watched the sunset. As darkness fell, the riot of Rio’s neon lights began to obliterate Sugarloaf and the other volcanic mountains, save for a patch of white light atop Corcovado mountain that illuminated the statue of Christ the Redeemer. The ferry ride back to Rio was magical, even for the locals. We crossed the Bay in silence enchanted by the beauty all around us.

© Joan Currie - Guanabara Bay

Maple Leaf Ball…

09 Thursday Sep 2010

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© Bill McClaren

I could have danced all night!
I could have danced all night!
And still have begged for more.
Lerner and Loewe

My all-time best date night was at the Maple Leaf Ball in Boston when Bobby Orr, of Boston Bruins fame, was the co-host. When he greeted me I reminded him that I had had a summer job working at the Press Department at the Canadian National Exhibition, and had escorted him to see his Hockey Hall of Fame exhibit there for the first time.

Later on the dance floor my date, a huge Bruins fan,  pointed to Bobby Orr on the balcony and said -“There’s Bobby Orr!”I looked up and Bobby Orr waved and said, “Hi, Joan!” Needless to say, my date was very impressed.

Models – Lauren Currie & Oleg Galagan

Morning Snuggle…

07 Tuesday Sep 2010

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Morning Snuggle

© Pia Ulin

Body of a woman, white hills, white thighs,
when you surrender, you stretch out like the world.

Cuerpo de mujer, blancas colinas, muslos blancos,
te pareces al mundo en tu actitud de entrega.

Pablo Neruda

One of the things I loved most about being married was snuggling in bed wrapped in the arms of my beloved in the early hours of the morning.  It was during those precious moments under warm layers of an eiderdown and cotton sheets, with our bodies intertwined as one, that we shared our innermost thoughts, hopes, and dreams.

Forsaking all others, we talked in hushed tones and tenderly stroked each other’s heads and soft spots until dawn’s first light.  I savored and luxuriated in those moments of reverie and touch before we would reluctantly break away to begin the morning routine.  Building a few minutes of intimacy and pleasure into the start of the day can make all the difference to a relationship and the quality of your life.  You may come to treasure and yearn for more of those tender times, too.

© Tom Shannon

Engaging in Life…

06 Monday Sep 2010

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© Jesper Brandt

Sometimes we have love and sometimes we lose love. Sometimes love can hurt terribly like a deep wound. In our world we have lots of ups and down, pleasures and pains. But that’s life and we learn to accept the bad with the good. Without the bad times we wouldn’t appreciate the good times. Life is precious and I cherish ever single moment. – Sailor Moon

A newly married woman I know worried that her husband was going to leave her because there was so much drama in her life. Family and friends were constantly asking for her help with serious issues and there seemed to be no end in sight to the bad tidings.

It turned out that she did not have to fret for one moment about her husband’s commitment to the marriage. It was her way of engaging in the messiness of life and not turning away from helping others – getting her hands dirty as it were, that he adored and loved about her most. He knew also that if the time were to come when he needed help, she would be right there at his side.

Consider a mosaic: shards of glass, stone or tile are set together in such a way as to form an image. If all the pieces are white – no picture is evident. Add a few fragments of light yellow or beige and perhaps the beginning of an image appears. But add some black and glittery gold to the work and now you start to have definition from the contrast between the light and the dark. Further, when you add shards from the entire color palette, a vision emerges that has depth, intensity, and profundity. We have only one chance to create the image that is our life. It can be shallow or it can have depth. The choice is ours!

© Jesper Brandt

Belly Dancing…

05 Sunday Sep 2010

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© Joan Currie

Great dancers are not great because of their technique;
they are great because of their passion.
Martha Graham

Classical Egyptian belly dancing is an activity that I have embraced for the music, choreography, tradition, community of women, and the costumes. It is important to shake and listen before choosing a hip scarf as each one makes a different sound depending on the number and characteristics of the individual coins and other embellishments. The black scarf has a heavier sound and is better suited to more percussive, tribal rhythms.

© Joan Currie

Model – Lauren Currie

Beautification…

03 Friday Sep 2010

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© Lauren DiMarco

Beauty is about perception, not about make-up. I think the beginning of all beauty is knowing and liking oneself. You can’t put on make-up, or dress yourself, or do your hair with any sort of fun or joy if you’re doing it from a position of correction. – Kevyn Aucoin

I spotted a construction sign that read, Beautification in progress. Thank you for your patience! Although I know we are in a constant state of beautification both inside and out, I thought it would be a good idea to make a similar sign to carry with me when I go about my activities of daily living. It could explain, for example, why I do not look my best when I roll out of bed and dash into Starbucks at 6:30 for my morning latte in track pants and a T-shirt, tousled hair, and no make-up.

I remember an Oprah makeover segment in which Gayle King discussed the woes of being single.  She confessed that on Sunday mornings she, too, ran in for coffee and a newspaper in her tracksuit without benefit of makeup or coiffed hair. Oprah and her makeover expert exchanged knowing glances and said, “That’s why you’re still single.” Gayle retorted that if she ran into a potential date, she would simply say, “this isn’t what I really look like!” With a sign, she wouldn’t have had to say a word…

Fishing…

02 Thursday Sep 2010

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© Joan Currie - Fishing

Many men go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not the fish that they are after. – Henry David Thoreau

My father loved to fish! At least once a year he ventured into the wilds of Quebec in search of rainbow trout. He always came home with his limit and many a tall tale about the fish that got away.

Dad first taught his two daughters and son to fish in Georgian Bay, Ontario. We learned the finer points of bait selection, casting, and how to remove the hook by holding the fish firmly in one hand and carefully extracting the instrument of death with the other. Often we released the fish back into the water and then worried about the creatures swimming around with holes in their mouths – the fish equivalent of a cleft lip.

Father bought fishing rods for his grandchildren as soon as they could walk. I was amazed to see my three daughters reach for minnows to bait the hook, reel in the catch, and unhook with such confidence and more ease than I ever had.