Seriously Girl Scouts of America?

Now don't take this the wrong way. Even though I am 45 years old, I am a Girl Scout. Once a Girl Scout, always a Girl Scout. I did the whole nine yards in my GS years.  I sold cookies, I wrapped gifts at Christmas, I helped build our tissue paper float, and even rode on the float in the Pride Week Parade.  I painted trash cans to beautify the City, and was in the local paper getting an award.  I even still have my sash with all my badges.

That's me with the great knee high socks!

I attribute the Girl Scouts impart, for making me the strong woman I am today. So, what is my beef you ask?  It is a local commercial for the upcoming cookie drive. It goes something like this:

Several little Girl Scouts getting their check list all ready to sell. They have the cookies, they have the confidence and then, one girl tells the others, "And don't forget your secret weapon", as one little girl bats her eyes. Then the comment is made, "She's gonna sell a lot of cookies"!

Seriously Girl Scouts? Is that REALLY what we want to be teaching our young ladies?  Just bat your eyes and you will persuade people to buy what you are offering. That we need to use our "feminine wiles" to get what we want. I mean seriously? Women have worked to achieve quality for so long, and are STILL working for it, and it one "innocent" commercial the Girl Scouts have just set the women's movement back a few thousand years.

Isn't the real message we should be giving our girls it to, go out, work hard, offer good customer service To be proud and be confident?  Shouldn't we be telling them that, you may be cute, but you can't just bat your eyes are get people to do what you want if you want to be respected when you grow up?

 Now, some may be saying, take it easy lady it is only a commercial. They are just little girls, no big deal. But as a sash owning, grown-up Girl Scout, I beg to differ. There is power in advertising. If there wasn't, it would not be a billion dollar industry. If we advertise to our little girl's to bat your eyes and get what you want, we are doing them a HUGE disservice. Because as everyone woman knows, those pretty young eyes only last so long. After that, you better know how to use your brain and your words to succeed!

And of course if you disagree with me, I will just bat my eyes and I am sure you will come around!

Purpose

Sometimes, more than others, I reflect on what my life's purpose is. I have never been a mother, so raising wonderful human beings, next President or maybe a Noble Peace Prize winner is not it. I have never had a magnificent career. I am not a Doctor, Nurse, or Teacher. I don't save lives, or educate our future. I am not brilliant or beautiful, and although I call myself an artist, I am no Micheanglo.

I don't know about you, but it makes me dizzy trying to figure out the "reason why I am here."  It seems every book, magazine article and television talk show tells us that we NEED to figure it out.  After all, it would just be too scary to think that we don't have a "REAL" purpose. Or would it?

What if for a moment, we stopped worrying about the "why" and just started  DOING.  Maybe we are here  to create the next great work of art, or to find a cure for (fill in the disease). Or maybe we're not. Maybe we are here save the rain forest, or to invent the next thing that will save make life easier for the disadvantaged. Or maybe not.

 Maybe our  reason is to be a cog it the wheel, that helps turn the person, who WILL create the next great thing or cure cancer.  Or maybe, just maybe, the only reason we are here is to hold a hand of a dying friend, or to deliver a meal to elderly person. Or maybe the only reason was to save that stray dog and save his child from heartbreak.

I don't know about you, but if my "reason" for being on this Earth is only one of the above, then I know my life has been a success.   Are there really any reasons for being here that are any more important than the next?  I don't think so. The World is made up a few people who will achieve great things, a great amount of people who achieve OK things, and then the  people like me, who will find their purpose in doing the little things.  And isn't it the little things in life that really matter?

I will leave you with a quote from one of my favorite people, Eckhart Tolle. It goes like this;

Don't underestimate the power that is in presence. Even if seemingly nothing much is happening yet, there's enormous power that comes through you and flows into this world. Don't even try to understand what it wants; you can only ever get glimpses of what its ultimate purpose is. There's no single human being who knows intellectually what that ultimate purpose of that vast power is that wants to come into this world through you.

Simply said, Just BE...

My Frozen Addiction

            Ok, I think I have come to the conclusion that I am addicted to frozen Charlotte dolls!

I honestly can not get enough of these little girls. They were born in Germany in the early 1900's. Not perfect, many were buried on the grounds of doll factories. Recently, many are being unearthed.

The dolls are based on the story of a little girl named Charlotte, who against went out one night on a sleigh ride with a your suitor. She did not listen to her Mother to stay covered with a blanket, and well, you can guess the ending.  It is actually a beautiful love story, as her suitor mourned her so long, he died of a broken heart. The whole poem can be view here http://www.wtv-zone.com/phyrst/audio/nfld/12/charlotte.htm

I have been creating with them for over two years now and I just can't stop!



Steampunk Charlotte Framed Collages



 

Frozen Charlotte Ornaments



And Lots and Lots of Charlotte jewelry!

                        

They just make me happy and I love giving each one new life. And what can I say? I could have worse addictions!

For my complete line of frozen Charlotte jewelry, art dolls, and original art please visit me here:

http://www.loreliekaydesigns.etsy.com/

Treasury Day!

Wow, today has been a good day on Etsy for Treasuries! 

My new Frozen Charlotte necklace made her first debut here: http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4d2ca12e2f406d910d2046e5/lacey-winter-days
And my other little girl showed up here:
http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4d2c8409802b6d91d42a02b6/locked-romance
And THEN my other new girl showed up here:
http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4d2cd851b78a8eefc6e40a4f/take-the-next-left

It is an art in and of itself putting together a Treasury.  Another thing to put on my "To try" list....

12 Years Come and Gone...

Well, 12 years ago today, I married my Best Friend!  Of course since it took him a while to realize that I was "the one" we dated for 8 years. So actually I am thinking I should get credit for 20 years!  Looking back, I wonder where those years went. I seems like yesterday, I saw this tall, dark, handsome man, and said, "That is the man I am going to marry". No kidding, the first time I saw him from across the room, that was it.

Waiting until 33 to get married for the first time, and marrying some 15 years older, who also was getting married for the first time, certainly had it's challenges at times!   I think we were both a little set in our way. Just a little... But looking back, I wouldn't change a thing.

I married the strong silent type, which I now realize is a good thing, since I am NOT so silent most of the time.  He is a wonderful father to our 3 furry children. He understands when I have to pick up every stray I see, and muddy or not, put them in his classic car and take them home. He has stood by me though life changing surgeries.   He has provided me a place where I feel comfortable and safe.  He has been my Best Friend.

At times I feel bad, that we didn't "grow up" together.  We didn't do the first house, first baby, first career, and all the other firsts that people have when they marry young.  But I stop feeling bad, when I realize that even though we didn't grow up together,  we will still get to grow old together.  And what could be better than that?

                                               Happy Anniversary, to my Best Friend! 

Here we GO....

Well, it is hard for me to believe that another year has passed! When I was young *older*people always told me that time would start flying by when I grew up. Of course, I didn't believe them. I took every moment  for granted. Just knowing that the next one would be better.

 Looking back on 2010, I thought, "Boy it really was a pretty uneventful year.  Just living life, creating art, and mostly just *being*...

Then it hit me, that is a VERY eventful year!  Being able to just create, to be still, to take my dogs for walks, and to volunteer my time...that is really the best that life has to offer.

I hope this year brings me more of the same.  Time to create, time to love, and time to just *BE*.  I don't make resolutions, because to me that words reminds me of the word resolve. And one of the first definitions of word resolve is to, "bring to an end".  And isn't that what most of us end of doing with the resolutions we make? 

So instead a resolution, I am making a conscious decision. A decision to be more present in my life. To be present in every moment. Because after all, isn't that all we ever have?...