The Age of Bliss

Bubbee Fashion Tip

2009-09-24T17:57:00.001-07:00

My black clunky sports watch just bit the dust. Good riddance! It was too big for my wrist, anyway. And expensive. I got the idea to check out kid's watches and guess what? They're less expensive and so cute. For a fourth of what I paid for my adult watch, I got the same brand AND it's sky blue with white flowers on the woven band. The face is blue and white, reminding me of clouds.

Now if I just had a granddaughter to go shopping with...we could have matching Bubbee/Baby watches.

Smiling Pretty

2009-03-23T17:30:00.000-07:00

Today I learned that I am a time traveler. Yes, I get to be a teenager one orthodontist visit at a time! Think how I felt sitting in a waiting room surrounded by fifteen-year-old boys about thirty-seven-years too late. I was the only patient with an AARP card in her wallet. Soon when I smile, the silver flashing on my teeth should match the silver in my hair.

But I've decided to have a good attitude. When I'm sitting in that chair at the end of April, I will reflect on how much I've learned since the first time around. Wish me luck!

The Bubbeebliss Spirit

2008-12-03T10:18:00.000-08:00

I just read a wonderful quote by Annie Leibovitz in the December 8th Time Magazine. She points out that "...one of the most beautiful things is, children are happy just watching the luggage come out at the airport."

That's the spirit that our generation of women can share with the two generations ahead of us. Together, we can make this world a happier place!

Just go to baggage claim next time you need a boost.

The Year 3008

2008-04-09T11:25:00.000-07:00

I just accidentally typed the date on a document as 3008 versus 2008. My fingertips jerked off the keys, as if electrocuted. 3008? A thousand years from now?

I had been thinking in terms of a hundred years from now. My body knew better. Thinking of life in fifty or hundred-year increments is thinking too small.

The thought that how we're conducting ourselves today will impact a thousand years from now is daunting. That makes every action, big and small so very important.

Now let's think bigger. Bigger. Don't hold back. What if everyone on the planet self-actualized within the next year? Impossible, you say? Well, not until we open ourselves to the possibility will it ever be.

Tell you what...I'll do what it takes on my end, and you do what it takes on your end. And if I ever reach enlightenment, you'll be the first to know.

What Color is My Business?

2008-04-05T10:47:00.000-07:00

Trying to pick out a color for my logo reminds me of a surgeon placing his hand on a beating heart. So much depends on communicating a dart to the heart of my target woman. How does she see herself, both when she looks in the mirror and when she looks inside herself?

I would love orange, but my graphic designer tells me it can turn to brown in certain uses. Green says spring, but what flavor spring? Fuchsia? Sassy, but perhaps too va-va-voom.

What color does a woman wear to save the world?

Your opinions welcome!

Giddy Grandmothers

2008-04-03T12:28:00.000-07:00

I’ve noticed that women who are about to become grandmothers are positively giddy. Women who are about to become mothers are certainly excited, but their excitement’s tinged with anxiety, even fear. Not so with these giddy mothers-once-removed.

And that’s when I got the idea for my business. You'll be hearing more about that later.

6-Word Memoir

2008-03-26T18:57:00.000-07:00

There's a new game ripping through America, promoted by the New York Times. It's called the 6-Word Memoir in which you try to capture your whole life in a very few words.

I tried on "Two grown children, cellphone on loud" and "Married 23 years; diamond sparkles brighter."

Then I hit on, "Black Hair, White Hair, Still Smiling."

Ah, the bliss of being oneself.

Grandmothers Got Game

2008-03-21T13:08:00.000-07:00

I just read “Ender’s Game” by Carson Scott Card about a little boy who is tapped to save the world. Without revealing the ending, he’s in a battle against a Queen Bee society who stand to destroy Earth. Card writes, “He came to the tale of the great mother, the queen of all, who first learned to keep and teach the new queen instead of killing her or driving her away...until she bore one who understood her quest for harmony.”

So far, so good. I’m down with a quest for harmony. But those aren’t the lines that blazed in neon upon my retinas.

“This was a new thing in the world, two queens that loved and helped each other instead of battling, and together they were stronger than any other hive. They prospered; they had more daughters who joined them in peace; if was the beginning of wisdom.”

Here’s the back story. Card wrote his book in 1977, before home computers, before the internet. What he predicted through an act of fiction is mind boggling. In the book, the boy logs onto a desk whose face is a computer. His sister and brother exchange their world views on the net, which is read world-wide. In fact, they try to take over the world. How? Not by weapons or violence, but by the use of rhetoric over the net.

If Card can see a world that 30 years ago didn’t exist, let us pray that his vision—my vision—our vision of grandmothers joining in peace and creating world harmony comes true. My most fervent prayer, however, is that it doesn’t take 30 years.

We don’t have that kind of time.

Grandmothers Save the World

2008-03-21T12:54:00.000-07:00

I’ve been thinking about writing a book with the idea that Baby Boomer Women are the ones perfectly positioned to stop the madness. Remember us? We’re the ones, along with our male counterparts, who helped stop the Viet Nam War. We’re the ones who started the Feminist Movement against sexism. And we’re not the ones starting wars.

I feel to my marrow that now is the time for us to rise up across the planet. How? Beats me. That would take many more brain cells combined with many more brain cells to answer that one. Instead, I know the answer to two questions:

When? Now.

Who? Us. Women of a certain age. Women between 45 and 65. Women grandmothering the next generation, with or without children of their own. After all, future generations are everyone’s children.

What's Your Season?

2008-03-12T19:27:00.000-07:00

Years ago when I was in my twenties, it was popular to get your colors done. Everyone was one of the four seasons. I propose that if you're between 45 and 65, you're a Spring. Not ready to Fall down, not ready to bury yourself under the snows of Winter. You're at the beginning of a new life and new life is what Spring is all about.

Plant some new seeds now. Better get out of the way and let them bloom!

Click the link below, then click your mouse anywhere over the page to see what you can make grow.

Happy Spring! http://www.procreo.jp/labo/flower_garden.swf

Welcome to The Age of Bliss

2008-01-24T12:44:00.000-08:00

When giving birth to my daughter eighteen years ago, I felt like I’d been had.

Nobody had told me how much it hurt. How the pain sears and rips at your guts. How humiliating it is to have a roomful of strangers peering between your legs, and your husband seeing things no man has a right to view.

Now, turning 50, I feel like I’ve been had once again.

No one had ever told me how wonderful life can be as you get older. How rich life can be when you’ve had a full life and there’s still room for more. I’m in the sweet spot of life: after child rearing and before retirement. Who knew the empty nest was lined with silver? This truly is the Age of Bliss (pun and meaning intended).