April 30, 2010

Aging Gracefully with Guidance


This week’s Beauty of the Week is my sister Sarah. She is 58 years old. As they would say in my husband Tom’s family: Can you believe??? Sarah is nine years older than I. When people meet the two of us, they have a hard time believing that we are sisters because we look so different. They also might have a hard time at this point telling which one of us is older! Sarah has been blessed with a beautiful, peaches and cream, freckly complexion, and hair that is just now beginning to grey.

As many of you with a much older or younger sister might be able to relate, it is only recently that the age gap between Sarah and I has come together. For many years she and I existed, for lack of better words, in different decades. When she was going off to college, I was the age that she was when I was born. When she got married, I was in middle school. When she had her first child, I was in high school... It has only been in the last ten years or so that she has become more of a sister/girlfriend and less of aunt/mother to me. This is not to say that she hasn’t been a great sister because she absolutely has. She has watched over me, and guided me all these years so incredibly well. I credit my foundation partly to her. Almost every roadblock I have come to in life she has already been at, and is able to talk me through it. Kind of like a personal life coach.

What I love about Sarah is her voice. She sings beautifully and has the stage presence to be able to share her music with others. Even when she isn’t singing her voice calms me. She is also a great listener. Not just with me, but with everyone. She is loving, and thoughtful, and analytical. She is good at getting down underneath all the layers to where the truth resides. She is the best teacher/administrator I know. We also share a similar whacky sense of humor, and can always count on one another to laugh at each other’s slant on life.

But here is the most important thing that I want to tell you. Sarah came up the great name for Lines of Beauty. If it wasn’t for her this site might have been called The Beauty of Wrinkles or some other strange Louise name. I remember we were standing in my studio when I told her about my idea and the first thing that she said was “This is good work Lou.”

 Sarah you couldn’t have said anything more supportive to spur me along on my adventure. I love you sista.