Friday, It’s Time to Sparkle

In the summertime, we tend to get a least one hour of rain almost daily, here in Florida, but we also get a ton of sunshine, hence the nickname, ” The Sunshine State.” Last night we got a heavy, soaking rain and this morning the sun is shining through all of the raindrops covering my plants. My plants are sparkling! It’s a beautiful sight to behold.

Fridays are wonderful. Here at the blog, I don’t dig deep on Fridays. On Fridays, I stay at the surface level and I describe things, or books, or websites, or songs, that have made my own life more fun and interesting to experience. Please check out previous Friday posts for more favorites and please add your own favorites to my Comments section.

Here are my favorites for today:

Guerlain Aqua Allegoria line of perfumes – I’ve mentioned Herba Fresca here at the blog before because it is one of my favorite, all-time, refreshing, uplifting perfumes, but lately I have purchased a few other samples from this line (ebay) and I am blown away. They are lovely and clean and unique scents, everyone of them. One of the most unique, delicious scents from this line, utterly titillates me. It is easily a great Friday scent to wear. This scent from the divine Aqua Allegoria line is called “Ginger Piccante.” It’s not going to be for everyone, and it’s not an everyday scent, but for an essence of intrigue and daring and distinctiveness, give it a try!

Kim’s Pointy Earrings – Kim Wexler, from “Better Call Saul” is one of my favorite fictional characters from a television series, of all time. She wears a signature pair of earrings throughout the whole series, that I fell in love with, almost as much as her character. I think that these earrings subtly say, “I’m attractive, but don’t ever underestimate me. I will cut you, if provoked.” I bought a pair from Etsy (they came from Israel and are well made and reasonable priced) but you can get replicas of these earrings, at every price level. Alexis Bittar makes a similar pair of earrings. On an aside, I admire those of you, who wear the same signature things all of the time: a conversation piece of jewelry, or unique, colorful glasses or a signature scent that you wear every single day. I’m not that girl. I get bored easily, and I change it up all of the time, with my jewelry and perfumes, but I do find a lot of comfort in those of you who find your signature stamps, and stay loyal to these items, throughout your lives. I think that trait shows a lot of confidence in what you like.

Kim Wexler (Better Call Saul), Actress TV series

Mrs. Bridge by Evan S. Connell – “Oh Cecilia, you’re breaking my heart, you’re shaking my confidence daily!” (song by Simon and Garfunkel) (Cecilia, how many times have people sung this song to you, while you had a plastered smile on your face, while wondering how long you would have to endure it, as if it were the first time you had ever heard someone sing it to you? I have a very unusual maiden name. I can completely empathize.) Cecilia is one of my awesome readers (I LOVE and appreciate all of my readers, so so much!) who recommended this book for me to read. And I just finished it, and it was heartbreakingly excellent. It is an easy read, and a hard read, all at the same time, because if you are a middle-aged woman, in the middle of facing your own existential crises, you will cringe with self awareness, more than a few times, when reading this book. Mrs. Bridge is considered to be a classic, that never quite gets the attention that it deserves, much like its heroine. If you recall, the movie, “Mr. and Mrs. Bridge” featuring Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, the movie is partially based on this book. I kept finding myself reflecting on Ordinary People and The Stepford Wives, while reading this thought-provoking, and also feeling-evoking, sparse novel. Thank you for recommending it to me, Cecilia.

Okay, let’s have a fabulous weekend, shall we?? See you tomorrow!

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Monday Fun-Day

Movie Quotes on Twitter: ""You don't save me. I save me." - Kim Wexler,  Better Call Saul 2020… "

This is a going to be a little more serious than my typical Monday post, but it has been playing around in my head too long, for me to not get it out in writing. That’s how it works with me. My husband and I have been devoted to watching the “Better Call Saul” television series for the last few weeks. It’s excellent. Having been huge fans of “Breaking Bad”, I am not sure why it took us so long to get to the spinoff, “Better Call Saul”, but better late than never.

There is a powerful scene in the show, where one of the characters, Kim Wexler, is having to dig herself out of a hole with her employer – a hole, partially made by her love interest, Jimmy, and his bad judgment. Jimmy is trying to fix what has happened, in order to get back into Kim’s good graces. At the end of this poignant scene, Kim dismisses Jimmy’s shady ‘solution’ to the problem, by using her own reason and common sense and good judgment. With a very determined, and empowered and all-knowing demeanor, she says to Jimmy, “You don’t save me. I save me.”

“I save me.” Friends, this is a good mantra. Keep it in your back pocket. Use it often. Remind yourself how often you have saved yourself from negative experiences such as abusive relationships, toxic work places, financial crises, bad personal habits and addictions, health problems, and even working through, and overcoming grief. Sure, you may have received help from loved ones, and professionals, and your Higher Power, but you accepted that help. (As the proverb goes, “God helps those, who help themselves.”) You faced the problem head on, and realized, and admitted to yourself and to others, that you needed help. You loved yourself. You saved yourself. You loved yourself enough to save yourself. You stepped out of the victim chair and into your personal power. You saved yourself again and again. You showed yourself how worthy you are of love, and kindness, and goodness, and grace. You showed yourself that you could trust yourself. You stopped waiting around for someone, or something else, outside of yourself, to save you. You saved you. It’s the only way.

“I save me.”

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.