My Signature Wardrobe Piece

bandanna purple photo

The Accidental Icon blogger Lyn Slater talked about having a signature item in your wardrobe.

The photo above attests to what has become my signature item: a colorful bandanna.

The summer I turned 51 my hair start to frizz up and curl in different directions in rainy or humid weather.

I’d dry my hair straight. Going out the door in the rain or humid air I’d arrive at my destination with unruly hair. You can predict the weather by looking at my hair.

That summer I bough 5 different bandannas in a dollar store. (I”m not proud that they have a Made in China label.)

Since I can’t wear a hat on my job I was pleased to be able to get away with wearing a bandanna to staff the reference desk.

Isaac Mizrahi in his book How to Have Style recommended wearing bandannas to brighten your mood.

A woman featured in the Andrea Linett book The Cool Factor sported a bandanna as her trademark.

These two fashion guides inspired me to start wearing bandannas as a bad-hair day cover-up. My cover has been blown.

In New York City the Human Rights Commission has made it illegal for employers to discriminate against workers because of their hairstyles.

I think I was able to get away with wearing bandannas at my job precisely because so many people wear different kinds of headscarves as a matter of course.

In fact: sometimes a hairstyle born out of a bad hair day can become a celebration of your individuality.

Taking away someone’s right to self-expression should be forbidden.

There are so many beautiful people walking around with hair that is a point of pride.

If the hair is not on your head you shouldn’t be concerned with what it looks like.

My unruly hair brings me no happiness.

The bandannas I wear bring other people joy. Walking down the street people stop me and comment on my choice of headscarf.

At midlife wearing a bandanna has become my signature.

In a coming blog entry I”m going to talk more about why uniformity and conformity should be illegal.

Art and Soul

crescentmoon lovers

This is my “Love You to the Moon” painting.

It’s the fourth painting I’ve created in the last seven years.

You cannot give up on yourself after you have a setback.

It could take one year. It could take five years or ten years. It could take longer.

Yet the point is you can recover yourself along with your mental health.

Our lives aren’t over by a long shot when we have a hurdle (or two or three) to clear in life.

My goal is to continue to go to the painting events.

I recommend you try one out in your city or town. The cost hovers around thirty-five to fifty dollars. You get one free glass of wine. Sometimes you can buy a personal pizza to have if you get there earlier.

The artists are friendly. It’s a happy place.

I believe everyone can be creative. That giving form to beauty via the creation of art and music and fashion is what gives us joy in life.

We could use more light love and laughter in the world.

At the Paint-n-Sip events the music is upbeat, everyone’s friendly, and the instructor gives positive constructive feedback.

You can click on my art work category to view my Golden Goddess painting too.

Dawn of 54

I will be 54 in the spring.

I’ve discovered the Accidental Icon blog I’ll link to at the bottom of this blog entry.

The goal is to admire not envy others.

In mid life it’s time to accept the things you cannot change.

And to change the things you’re able to.

I’m only 5 feet tall. I couldn’t possibly wear obdurate dangling earrings that steal the show. I would look ridiculous in a rust coat too.

Yet I find that observing that look I can take from it my own distinct variation: maybe my lightweight gray coat and the designer sunglasses picked up at a discount store.

It’s time to get wise to the Instagram-worthy selfies that others post on social media.

Research says that younger people are winding up depressed. Most likely it’s because they’re viewing the perfect-seeming feeds of peers.

“I admire people who seem to have a charmed life,” I told a woman I consider a friend.

“Seem to. That’s it. There’s no charmed life,” my friend shot back.

On the cusp of 54 it’s time to start liking yourself and your imperfections if you haven’t already made peace with these things.

I’ll only ever be 5 feet tall. I won’t have perfect hair ever.

Now I think trying to emulate another person who is supposed to be inspirational as a role model is a myth.

Trying to follow fashion trends is a myth too.

In your fifties you have to trust that you have enough and you are enough.

Regardless of what other people insinuate about your worth.

It’s called self-worth because it comes from within.

The Accidental Icon blog is my new added attraction.

I’m keen to riff on things this other blogger talked about.

Stayed tuned for my own city girl take on getting older.

 

Hope and Healing

My agenda is to advance my vision of recovery, from whatever it is a person is in recovery from.

I’m confident that it’s possible to recover from whatever disadvantage–an illness; a setback; whatever–that has derailed you.

My message of hope and healing is what people need to hear.

Every beautiful person living on earth has the right to be endowed with life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Free from hate and oppression; free to be who they are without having to live in fear.

Here’s to us square pegs in round holes.

Here’s to the dreamers among us who envision a better life for ourselves and others.

What I really intend to do in this blog is to give form to the beauty of recovery in all its definitions and manifestations.

My version is Left of the Dial.

In a coming blog entry I’ll talk about this more.

The Health Harmony Happiness Tour

The other day I got one hell of an idea: that this year in 2019 I want to act like a rock star and go on tour.

The Health Harmony Happiness Tour will take place around the globe via my excursions writing in the blog to fellow travelers.

It hit me that at its core my Left of the Dial life ethic is predicated on living in Health Harmony and Happiness.

Thus I changed the words in the subtitle at the top of this blog.

Loyal followers will remember I used to be a disc jockey on FM radio in the 1980s.
Thus the title of my memoir Left of the Dial.

As a disc jockey, you measured the intensity of the sound of the music via a VU meter. On the red in the right the sound was chaotic. On the left the sound is in balance.

As I started to think about this I realized the expression “living life in balance” is a trite overused cliche.

It hit me that the true goal should be to live in harmony.

The word harmony is rarely used and refers to a pleasing arrangement of parts or internal calm.

Thus harmony vividly describes the elements that help a person live life well.

When there’s congruence between who you are and what you do and other aspects of your life that is the key to being able to heal.

Hence living in harmony could allow a person to heal.

Living in health harmony and happiness makes sense as a viable goal in recovery.

In coming blog entries I would like to talk about this more.

I have some ideas about adopting healing habits.

There’s a lot of illness in society–all kinds not just physical–that I strive to provide a healthy place in the blog to talk about living life whole and well.

 

The Gift of Creativity

wired to create cover

The book above is the most empowering nonfiction book I’ve ever read so far.

Quite simply if you are an artist you must create your chosen art.

To encourage you to go out and buy it I’ll quote from the Apple computer 1997 advertisement featured in the book:

“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently.”

Wired to Create: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Creative Mind (2015) by Scott Barry Kaufman and Carolyn Gregoire is the most uplifting and inspiring ode to doing your own thing.

10 things highly creative people do differently involve:

Imaginative Play

Passion

Daydreaming

Solitude

Intuition

Openness to Experience

Mindfulness

Sensitivity

Turning Adversity into Advantage

Thinking Differently

Wired to Create is on par with Dark Horse: Achieving Success through the Pursuit of Fulfillment.

For any reader engaged in battle between self-doubt and confidence about their Art or your Self as the individual qualified to make this Art I say: Read this Book.

Being wired to create is a gift. What makes you different gives you an advantage.

My Vision for 2019

There’s a lot of negativity in the world.

We don’t have to dwell on the negative in our minds and in our beliefs.

I’ve been thinking long and hard about this topic in the early days of the New Year.

The Artist’s Statement I live by is this:

To act as a Chief Joy Officer to create things of beauty to share with others to make them feel good.

I urge you if you are an artist or a creator of any kind or simply a human being to focus on the positive.

I’m 53 years old. I firmly believe that dwelling on the negative is only a good way to age yourself faster.

And how do you feel interacting with a person who is bitter or judgmental about you or other people?

Spending only fifteen minutes listening to their negative beliefs has the power to drain your energy and put you in an ill mood.

My goal is to empower, educate, and entertain readers, followers, and audience members.

The lesson I offer you in all of this is:

Consider focusing on the positive.

A blogger might get thousands of followers by advancing negative rhetoric.

I’ve decided I cannot and will not water down what I write or compromise what I write to make it acceptable to millions of followers.

I will not change my cheerful voice in here.

My vision for 2019 is to write blog entries that continue to be in the vanguard.

What is the point of dwelling on the negative?

My story is not the exception to the rule.

There are others out there who have recovered and have full and robust lives doing what they love.

All my life I will advance my vision of Recovery for Everyone, from whatever it is you’re in recovery from.

In here and elsewhere I will continue to offer hope for healing the illness in society.

And I will continue to write about my latest finds at Sephora : )

 

 

 

A Merry and Bright Season to You

gmorning gnight

It can be hard when our loved ones are gone to be in the mood to celebrate.

You can read GMorning GNight to give yourself a pep talk for the year ahead.

Mark my words 2019 will be better.

The graphic above is a photo of the cover of a new poetry book.

It’s well worth buying this book to read over and over.

Lin-Manuel Miranda is the Pulitzer-Prize winning playwright of Hamilton fame.

GMorning GNight: Little Pep Talks for Me & You is a collection of his tweets he’s fired off over the years.

One GMorning and GNight serenade empowered me like nothing else I’ve ever read.

Owing to copyright I can’t rewrite what he published. Only I can tell you this: the idea that each of us is one single self is a myth. Modern psychologists have shifted their thinking. It’s thought that your personality can change over the years.

I’m so envious of Lin-Manuel Miranda that I can’t bring myself to browse his website. After reading the GMorning GNight duet I was afraid to be treated to more of this author’s greatness. Would that I could write something as insightful and empowering as Miranda’s ode to a person’s multiple selves.

Who’s hanging out inside me today? What thoughts are spinning around in there? Where have I been and where am I going?

These are the questions I ask after having read this empowering book.

My goal is to have my own version of a literary career. What Miranda does on the stage I want to do on the page.

I hope in the spring to have good news about the second nonfiction book I’ve written.

Right now I’m going to promote the work of other authors I admire.

Even though Lin-Manuel Miranda is famous he seems like a nice guy.

Do yourself a favor and read GMorning GNight.

It brought me such cheer to read it that I want to pass this on.

Cheap and Cheerful

lipstick rise up rose

For $9 a tube of lipstick is cheap and cheerful in this holiday season.

I was in a drugstore and decided to browse the Revlon display in search of one of the few lipsticks I’ve liked from this brand.

Instead of getting the Rose Velvet I snatched up this tube in a shade called Rise Up Rose. It is a matte lipstick in the new line of Revlon Matte offerings.

To my surprise the color is fabulous. I took a risk buying it because nearly all the time I chanced to take home an impulse buy from the drugstore the lipstick looked awful on me.

Hint: if you share my coloring Warm Me Up by Maybelline just won’t do. Nor will any beige, brown, orange, or coral shades.

The secret to success in the makeup aisle is to know your undertone and search for shades that match it.

I’ve been tested out as a Winter – and what the Visual Therapy founders call a Star:

I have ivory skin with a cool undertone and dark brown eyes and black hair.

Thus cool colors look better on me than warm colors.

You can take the Color Type quiz in the Life in Color book to find out whether you have a warm or cool color type.

Forget sending and receiving greeting cards with generic Peace on Earth and Joy to the World messages.

The real joy is to be had in doing good for others and for yourself.

Do yourself a favor: buy a new tube of lipstick to brighten your spirits.

Send out Christmas cards if that would make you happy.

At this time of year when loved ones who are gone are missing from the table:

I approve of doing anything healthy that sparks joy.

 

Living for Today

I’ve figured out that becoming happier is possible when you commit to living for today.

What you want to achieve could be far off on the horizon.

Having gratitude for where you are in your life in the present moment is the antidote to the holiday blues.

Again it can be as simple as going to a clothing store and trying on items that fit and flatter. This can put you in a good mood.

It’s possible to be happy right here right now.

Regardless of what your bank account balance is. Regardless of whether you’re single or part of a couple. Regardless of whatever pain you’re in.

You can still be happy even when your life hasn’t gone the way you planned.

I’ve figured out that living life on life’s terms not my terms is the way to feel happy.

Doing this it won’t matter that life isn’t fair.

Life can be good living in recovery. You can have a better life post-breakdown than you had before the illness.

In the coming blog entry I want to spread more cheer.

Enjoying being yourself is the secret to having a good life.

I’ll talk more about how to become happier.

Sometimes you just have to slow down and pace yourself.

Today is the greatest day. It’s the only one we have.