Quote of The Day

You cannot escape the results of your thoughts. Whatever your present environment may be, you will fall, remain or rise with your thoughts, your vision, your ideal. You will become as small as your controlling desire; as great as your dominant aspiration.

James Allen

Quote Of The Day

Life is What Happens while you make other plans

-John Lennon

Frida Kahlo

For everyone tuning in...let me say that my entire birthday weekend went extremely well!

Friday, I got my wish to stay in town all day. Sleep in; catch a movie (The Mummy) with my son;  stroll down to the marina and have dinner at my favorite in-town Mexican Restaraunt.  Then off the the tfomc's house for some film reminiscing...we watched Big Trouble in Little China-which is actually  just as bad as I remember it, but a lot of fun.  The older set of boys remember it fondly from their childhood, and the youngest was blown away at how we all could quote before the lines were stated.

Saturday, the boys got off to a late start for Tahoe but it was o.k....one of those times that I was grateful for not being rushed into self-imposed manditory fun.  When I arrived at the BART sation and got to the top of the stairs, the train pulled up and the doors opened as if to say..."Ms. Reasonette, your coach has arrived...".  It was actually the perfect start to a perfect day! 

On the advice of a colleague, I was inspired to take in the Frida Kahlo exibit currently at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.  Before this weekend, I didn't really know much about her, other than that she has become the poster child for the GLBT community, and that she and Diego Rivera were prominent in the Chicano movement in the 1970s.  But, can I just say "WOW!"....such pain...such suffering...a truly tortured soul who overcame so much hardship physically and emotionally.  She truly was way ahead of her time, and now a source of new inspiration in the pursuit of self-expression.  When she was declared a "surrealist", she replied..."no, I just painted my feelings".  And yes....sometimes it was shocking, sometimes not so much... but so real and just out there for everyone to see.  So expressive and self assured, yet fragile as her body had been broken, no shattered, as well as her emotions shattered by Diego River, the man she loved but could never have for herself.  In fact, at one point, a physician had told Diego that he was incapable of having fidelity--he was more than o.k with it.  It made my heart ache to the point where I could almost feel her pain.  Yet the empowerment that came with it transcended all things social and cultural at the time and to this day.  And the personal lesson is this...never be ashamed of who you are.  In this era of botox and sur-reality television, the ability be an authentic person has the potential to leave an indelible mark in the person's community and change the world for the better--and even inspire others to do the same.  I think this experience has left a permanent mark on my consciousness to be true to who and what I am.