Simply More

I’ve posted in here about Cynthia Erivo before. She’s the face on the cover of this month’s Harper’s Bazaar Performance issue.

To wit the the actor and vocalist had this to say at a GLAAD Media Award speech: “What I wrote about was [that] those of us who are in the light, who are walking around with our lanterns shining bright, should just change the direction of the lanterns and shine it back on people who don’t know where their path is yet.”

I quote this in the hopes you’ll go out and buy a copy of the magazine.

I’m set to check out of the library Cynthia Erivo’s new forthcoming book Simply More. You could likely get the guide from the library too.

Asking ourselves: “Where is my path? What is the way forward?” can be a scary proposition. Often we don’t fear failure half as much as we fear getting what we want.

The expression is: “Be careful what you wish for it might come true.”

What has come true for me is that I achieved a goal I had long hoped for.

Having the courage to risk acting to Make It Happen–whatever the It is you want–should be a common occurrence. Too often we put off doing this because we’re scared of the outcome or what others will think or worse we think it’s not the right time to try.

Today is always the right time. I encourage followers to reach for the brass ring always. Life can be a carousel moving ever faster and faster. Too often going around and around in the same circle we’re stuck in.

Breaking out of the rut you’re in is called for. You haven’t truly lived until you’ve been terrified to do something and do it anyway. Your friends should be your cheerleaders.

Cynthia Erivo is like a role model for me. Her story can be empowering for countless other nameless faces going about our days not famous like her.

Erivo is right that those of us in the position to do so should shine a light on others. My goal while I’m here on earth is to share stories and teach others to be well.

On the cover of Harper’s Bazaar is this Cynthia Erivo quote: “I feel so fully myself right now.”

My hope is that I can give followers a shot of confidence to say: “This is who I am. I’m not going to hide in the shadows. I’m going to shine my light whether others like it or not.”

Be that lantern I would tell you. Be bold and brave on the path you’re on so that others can blaze their own trail coming up.

Harper’s Bazaar Beauty Issue

On the cover of the Beauty issue of Harper’s Bazaar this month is supermodel Linda Evangelista’s quote: “Beauty is Earned.”

It’s not a given that women feel beautiful about ourselves.

The fat on supermodel Linda Evangelista’s skin hardened after she used the Coolsculpting technique to tighten her body that was getting older and out of shape.

No longer beautiful in the way society always valued her to be the damaging side effect of Coolsculpting sent Evangelista into talk therapy.

Too sad it is that ordinarily women put everyone else’s needs first or worse cater to others instead of our own health wealth and happiness.

In a coming blog entry, I’ll talk about Christine Platt’s insight shared in her new newsletter about how each of us should act “self-ish.”

Too often supermodels are only human like we are. They travel the globe on photo shoots and spend countless hours racking up air miles. Even when closer to home their schedules are tightly packed and could be frantic.

Having to smile at the camera when inside you’re insecure about the very body everyone loves to look at.

Evangelista wrote that no one in her history of modeling told her the exact words: “You’re beautiful.” It was always a comment on how the clothes looked on her.

Evangelista vowed to tell her son and everyone else: “You’re beautiful” every chance she gets today.

There should be no judgment here about whether Evangelista took care of her health all these years.

In the next blog entry, I’ll talk more about looking in the mirror and liking what we see.

Of course everyone living on earth is beautiful. There’s no doubt about this. We can start by telling our loved ones and friends that they are beautiful.

Harper’s Bazaar Art Issue

As regards this month’s Art theme in HB it’s right that each of us tries to change things for the better linked to an issue we have firsthand experience with.

Using art in any form to express the truth and speak out is the way to hopefully open hearts and minds and end stigma.

The best way to change a person’s mind is simply by being yourself. Only a heartless person would judge or hate you or me sight unseen or in plain sight before they got to know us apart from a stereotype.

A friend told me: “Narrow-mindedness is a disease of the heart.”

Stigma exists in different forms of multiple isms. This holiday season Peace on Earth shouldn’t be promoted only once a year on a Christmas card.

My hope is that my year-round blogging as an Art form can be inspiration to readers for expressing yourself in full bloom.

The Beauty Issue

The current Harper’s Bazaar is the Beauty Issue. Ever since Samir Nasr was elevated to Editor-in-Chief of Harper’s Bazaar the magazine has gotten better. I like HB more than Vogue. HB features social justice articles together with fashion columns.

Ever month I turn to the Market Memo and other pages in The Bazaar section of the magazine. It’s a great way to get inspiration for new outfits to create by “shopping in my closet.”

I’m set to read the book I Survived Capitalism and All I Got was This Lousy Tee Shirt. It’s geared to Gen Z and Millennials yet I’m going to read it soon.

In a future blog entry I will talk about a better alternative to consumerism that I will title Sustain-Ability. The average person according to research buys 63 or 66 items of clothing every year. How is this possible?

I’m going to write about Sustain-Ability which is also Beauty in its own way. I will detail how spring cleaning has become a thing of the past for me.

In the coming blog entry I will talk about a book I bought for my birthday from Barnes & Noble. Reading this guide kickstarted my focus on Sustain-Ability.