My friend Sandy is a Master hair Stylist. She is very well known for her perfection in creating beauty with hair and also for her stories and spiritual thoughts of wisdom she passes on to her clients. Her blog is titled SandyColoredHair.com

Below is part of an email I sent to her as a lead off to entice her to work together on the project of drawing more attention to Beauty. This means in all aspects of life, the outer and the inner, the awareness of and seeing where it takes us.

She agreed and here is a partial of what I sent her.

Sandy,
Attached is an article on poet Rumi from Spirituality Health Magazine, March 2008. I saw this and immediately thought, I need to send to Sandy.

I love the opening line on this article, as a theme, to work on together.  We can approach beauty in all of life; people, nature, animals, words, thoughts, writing, languages, places, music, songs, art, learning and anything else we can think of.

“Beauty is a significant presence, and it is beauty,
                    in whatever form, that awakens love.”  -Rumi

I am sharing some thoughts to keep in a folder for when the time fits.  Thoughts of you, what you do, how you think and how you write is what inspired me think of adding a section on beauty to the mix.

Let’s use Beauty to awaken us, and our readers, to another level of awareness of life.

Still game?

Bonito,
ray j

Here is a quote about Sandy. Julie’s quote, of which a partial here, is what urged me to get this rolling. I read it, said yes that is her let’s see if we can get her to expand her stories.

“Meeting Sandy has changed the way I look at beauty. I’ve never met someone with the level of authentic passion that she radiates for her life’s calling.”
~Julie Colvin, Book Project Coach,Wellness Facilitator and
Author of, A Cure for Emma.
www.acureforemma.com   www.wellnesswritingretreats.com

Well Sandy was game for the project so here is her first Blog.
She is a completely Beautiful role model herself, how she looks, how she thinks, speaks and writes.
I am sure this will grow and evolve Beautifully over the next year and on.

Sandy’s Blog Post:

Finding Beauty for Ray Justice
by Sandy Evenson on April 6, 2014
SandyColoredHair.com

I have been asked by my friend, Ray Justice, to join him on a new adventure. We are exploring the “World of Beauty” on his Web site, ecpathways.com. Along the way, we aim to help people discover inner beauty and all of its manifestations. We will give our respective points of view on beauty from every angle. I know the male/female perspectives are going to create exciting discoveries for our readers. So, I thought I would get the ball rolling by sharing one of my favorite stories.

Early in my career as a master haircolorist, I found a great way to help my guests see for themselves what I could see when I evaluated their skin tone, existing hair color and eye color. I used a computer assisted color analysis method that would isolate their unique color combinations. It was always fun to show someone just how many colors were in their eyes!

Annie was a wonderful girl who visited the salon regularly for haircuts and highlights.  She was among the thousands of hard working women on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. I gained enormous respect for those women, the people you never hear about, working behind the scenes for all of those faces you see in the media.

She was an interesting study. She was so very shy and introverted that it was even hard for her to lift her head enough for me to shape the fringe of hair around her face and over her eyes. I often wondered if something had happened to her to make her so afraid. It made me cringe to think what it might have been.

So, I was so excited when she asked me to do her colors and give her a makeup lesson. She was getting up the courage to speak to a new young man she had noticed at work. This was such progress for her. I was so proud to take part in bolstering her confidence.

After spending some time selecting her colors, I placed each of them next to one another…one for her softly highlighted hair, one for her lovely green eyes and one for her peaches and cream skin. She looked at them and said “They’re beautiful.” I looked back at her saying “That’s because you are beautiful.”

She looked again at the colors. Her eyes widened. She began to smile. Her face was utterly glowing. I think it was the very first time she had ever heard those words spoken about her. It was such a simple thing for me. But, for her, she was just now discovering her true beauty.

I watched her grow in so many ways. She started to walk taller, exuding confidence. And yes, she was even able to introduce herself to that guy who had piqued her interest at the office.

Beauty exists all around us. The very best of beauty comes from deep inside ourselves. We all have inner beauty. And we need to learn to bring it out and share it with the world. That’s when it truly blossoms.

Ray and I are working out the details and will begin our beauty quest soon. Join us on the journey and discover your unique gifts of beauty.

Check out the site. Then, share your comments and insights when we’re up and running.

“Lonely is The Night”
Changing what you think is so.

How much of my life, of your life, is a habit or pattern?
My answer is quite a bit, often much more than I am aware of.

The way is has been, during our life, is often the way we do it, think it or believe it.
A great deal of this we are not aware of and on a form of automatic pilot.

Questions to ask ourselves when we become aware of those repeating thoughts and beliefs.

Are they real? Are they true? Or just what you are used to?

Here is an example story that happened to me.
There was the time, many years ago, when my son was about 12 years old and wanted to go to a concert featuring rock star Billy Squire. My story was that I did not like his music, with his loud screeching guitars.  So my belief was I don’t like rock, or at least this type, at all.

He was too young to let go alone or with friends and he really wanted to go.
I had an idea and asked him to make me a cassette tape. Remember this was way before iPods were invented. He copied several Billy Squire songs and I listened to them twice a day for two weeks. I would go for a two-mile jog in the morning and again when I got home from work. I estimated I listed to about 7 hours of Mr. Squire during my daily runs.

I intentionally decided to work on my mind before I took him and his friend to the concert.
I had to find a way to not be aggravated by it all. Earplugs were also on my list of possibilities. It worked beyond my expectations; I just needed to be open to possibilities.
Guess what?  I still enjoy Billy Squire to this day and that was 30 years ago.
“Lonely is the Night” still pops into my head now and then and I love it.

So what is the meaning of this story?

My belief was that I do not like this type of music. Even stronger I would of said, then, that it drives me nuts and is annoying.  I changed my belief because I had a reason big enough to have me figure out a way to enjoy it or at least tolerate it.

With “Lonely is The Night” as the theme it becomes a reminder that when we go to bed at night it is a perfect time to pay attention to what we are thinking. What is going on with our thoughts?  It is also a perfect time to practice thinking about, or visualizing what and how we would like things to be instead of how we don’t.

Change is possible and not as difficult as you would think.
Rock on Billy Squire.
“Learn How to Live” by Billy Squire
Year: 1982
Album: Emotions in Motion

 

Welcome all.

This writing is about how it feels when others, especially when they are close to us, accept us as we are.  Personal confidence goes up a notch and we can relax and be ourself.

It starts out with the funeral service and celebration of life for my father who passed away at 92 years old. The service it self was full of stories of a man who served his country in World War 2, started his own florist and plant growing business and raised a family of 8 children along the way. His favorite song was titled “In The Garden” and he passed at the exact time while 32 close relatives were singing that song to him.

Several family members spoke of his Navy days, community and family involvement, his entrepreneurship, hard work while building a successful business. It was very touching, but it was the last speaker, my brother in law Jerry, who hit the high note. He spoke of the very strong feeling of acceptance felt by him, as an in-law, to our family. As he emotionally continued I was well aware of the heads nodding, in agreement, especially by the extended family members. You see once you were part of our family it did not matter if your relationship changed with your spouse. My parents accepted you as you were and if the relationship changed you were still accepted, exactly the same, just because you were you.
My parents currently have 63 members of there extended family. That includes their 8 children, grandchildren and great grandchildren and partners. You can imagine the different personalities, beliefs and desires of a group that size, yet all are accepted for who they are not how another thinks they should be.

As I heard the emotion in my brother-in-laws voice it took me to another level. Acceptance, so gratefully appreciated by those stepping in from other relations, and which I have so naturally taken for granted, moved me to yet another level of appreciation for my parents.

Thanks Dad, and as you already know, Mom is still at it, accepting all for who they are.