Sunday, March 24, 2024

An Abundant Life - Taking Good Care

Last year, when the holiday season was beginning, I decided to treat myself to one of my all time favorite perfumes as a Christmas present. I've loved Shalimar for many, many years, and the one that I've had is from a collection of bath essentials that at one time included powder and possibly something else like body lotion, although I don't remember exactly now. It is a pretty bottle, but when I saw that Guerlain had brought back the iconic bottle with the blue stopper, I thought it would be a beautiful addition to my personal collection of lovely bottles and lovely perfumes.

The day that I went to Saks Fifth Avenue in New York to select my Shalimar present, I met a Beauty Specialist named Habib and we spoke about my long time love of Shalimar and Guerlain. It was a lovely surprise when he contacted me a few weeks ago to say that Guerlain was having a very special event at Saks, and that he was inviting me to meet with the National Makeup Artist for a facial and a makeover. I made my appointment, and it was truly one of the most enjoyable and special experiences.

I had used Guerlain skin care in the past for a long time, and had a wonderful memory of it being a favorite feeling and such an excellent product, but I had forgotten just how beautiful and special it really is. The scent of it alone is like aromatherapy to me, bringing me memories of the time when I first tried it and the years when it was always part of my routine. As Nancy, the National Makeup Artist, began applying different treatments, her beautiful technique and touch made it so relaxing and wonderful that all of the different things that had been on my mind and all of the cares and thoughts seemed to melt away and disappear into the air. By the time she began putting on makeup, I was as relaxed as could be and felt renewed as I sipped a glass of champagne and let Nancy and Habib and the rest of the wonderful staff take care of me.

The makeup Nancy applied was done so beautifully and carefully, selected with an eye and an understanding of not only my face but who I am. It was truly lovely artistry, and I kept telling her how good I felt and how special, and that what she had created was making me feel so happy and peaceful and like a princess who was very special.

Wellness and care are part of what helps us to get through each day with whatever challenges we face, and having the beautiful blessing and opportunity of an experience like this one made everything glow more brightly. I'm so grateful to Habib for the invitation and his taking such good care of me, to Nancy for her beautiful and patient care and artistry, and to all of the staff for making this afternoon such a very special and very beautiful one.


An Afternoon At Guerlain
With So Much Gratitude to Habib and Nancy
And All The Marvelous Staff
At Saks Fifth Avenue
611 Fifth Avenue
New York City




Blessings,

Jannie Susan


        

Sunday, March 17, 2024

An Abundant Life - Beautiful Hospitality

I wrote about an experience of staying at the Ritz Carlton in Boston last fall, and since that time I've had occasion to visit again on a few more occasions. The reason that I have been traveling there is a very important one, and it's also one that is for something that I need to have rest and focus and to be prepared for. It has to do with other places that I need to travel to for meetings and presentations and discussions, and everything I am doing in the rest of my life still needs to keep being able to keep going while I am traveling back and forth. The first time I stayed at the Ritz, I wrote about my history of going to the old one with my Mother for tea, and also about the wonderful children's book by E.B. White, "The Trumpet Of The Swan" that describes in part of it an actual swan who stays at the Ritz and eats watercress sandwiches and sleeps in the bathtub.

My experiences at the Ritz are not quite like the swan's, but in some ways I feel almost like there is something about me and my life and the way I'm experiencing the beautiful hospitality of the Ritz and its wonderful staff that reminds me of that wonderful book and that swan. When I arrive there, they know me by name, something that is so comforting when you're traveling any time, but especially when you feel like you just want to relax and feel welcomed in preparation for the other things that you need to be ready to do. This last time I was there, I arrived a bit early for the usual check-in time, and the lovely woman who greeted me made a change in my room so that I wouldn't have to wait. I had called earlier to let them know, but I had told them that I didn't mind waiting. There is a wonderful area in the Club Lounge to have some refreshments, and I had said that as long as I could do that I'd be fine. But she went above and beyond to make sure that I had an actual room to go to when I arrived, and not only did she make a change to accommodate my early arrival, the room she changed me into was a very special one. I felt like a princess when I walked in and saw it, and I was so grateful to her for her kindness and generosity and consideration. 

The Club Lounge itself is a wonderful treat to have available. The food and experience there is delightful, and the staff so welcoming and charming, kind and helpful. It really is such a blessing of an experience that I look forward to, and although my travel is not for a vacation, having such wonderful people and such a wonderful hotel experience makes it feel like it is one, because I'm in a place where I can rest and relax and be taken care of.

True hospitality is an art and a gift. Some people and places can make you so happy to be there, and can help you feel like you're special and treasured and welcomed. Even the staff who I see in the hallways there have smiles that are genuine and kind, and each place where I go and each person I speak with has something pleasant and enjoyable to share in their conversation. I'm so blessed to have this haven to go to on my journey, and this wonderful place with wonderful people who make this experience so special. It's beautiful to remember their hospitality as I write about it, and beautiful to have their blessing when I am there.


 A Visit To
The Ritz Carlton
10 Avery Street
Boston, Massachusetts











Blessings,

Jannie Susan


Sunday, March 10, 2024

An Abundant Life - A Beautiful YES

I had written last week about the Leap Year Day celebration event at YES Gallery and some of the lovely things and people who were a part of it. When I was sharing with someone this past week about a little girl who brought me a work of her art and a work of art by one of her friends, and who has brought her friends and family to the gallery and who always says it is her favorite place, the person I was talking to said that you can't put a price on that. We had been talking about why it is that we do the things we do sometimes, and why I started the gallery, and we were sharing that sometimes we just do things because we do them, even if it makes no sense to anyone else why we would take the risk to do something like open an art gallery.

It's people like this little girl and Artists and community members of all ages whose response when they walk in the door keep me doing what I do in the way that I do it. When they walk in the gallery and tell me either in their own words or sometimes just in their actions how inspiring and beautiful it is, something in me is made so joyful. Sometimes there are things we do that make no sense to anyone else, and then along comes someone who affirms that what we're doing is important. Every time a visitor has such a positive response, every time someone walks by and says as one woman did the other day, "A best boutique!" or as she said it in German, "Ein besten boutik!" I find myself feeling all glowy and happy and warm inside. It meant so much for me to hear that woman's words, because I know a little German from my Mother and Grandmother and my high school classes, and when she said what she said, I thought of them and some friends I've had over the years and a visit I made to Germany a number of years ago to visit with someone who I knew from an old apartment building I lived in once upon a time.

YES Gallery is a community space, and often when people visit they thank me for what I have created and provided there. In an interesting way it's also a very spiritual place, because whenever I hear compliments and thanks I let people know that there is something more than I am that has made it possible. There isn't a way that any of it could have happened without God and without other people, and the quality of the energy and feeling there wouldn't be possible without God and the beautiful energy of the people who share their beautiful blessings and inspiration in the space. The inspiration and design and everything in it are things that came from a place much greater than I am, and that is not anything that I can say is my own.

I was listening to someone who was talking about spirituality, and I was trying to think about what it is that I would tell them if I could. When we say yes to beauty and joy, when we say yes to love, when we say yes to taking a chance on a dream that God has put in our hearts, the end result is always something that is filled with light and life. It's not always easy, and sometimes we can feel disheartened and discouraged, but then a little girl walks in our door and says that an art gallery is her favorite place, and somehow we find that things start to glow and hum again with the rhythm of fairytales, dreams and all the most beautiful things in a heavenly life.


Gifts Of Art
From Visitors Of All Ages And Backgrounds
At YES Gallery
408 6th Street
Hoboken, New Jersey





Blessings,

Jannie Susan


Sunday, March 3, 2024

An Abundant Life - Leaping Into Faith, Hope And Dreams And Growing Into New Life

It's been a very busy time for me for a long while now, and although the holiday season usually gives a time of more quietness, this time around I've been feeling like I have had so much to do that there has been very little time to just rest. When I first opened YES Gallery I had wanted to do regular events, and I've been scheduling them every month since the Grand Opening on August 23, 2022. When February rolled around I thought that maybe I just wouldn't do an event because there was so much going on in my life around and within the gallery, but I kept feeling like God was nudging me to go ahead and have an event and keep the joy of the gallery alive even in the midst of so much of everything else that is happening.

When I thought about the calendar, something made me think that maybe it was a Leap Year. I've been so busy that I hadn't even thought of that until I started thinking about when I could schedule an event. Sure enough, when I looked at the calendar I saw that this year is a Leap Year, and so I decided to schedule the event for February 29th. Because I was feeling as if I didn't really have much time to plan anything really big, I decided to just let celebrating the day be the inspiration for it, and when I made the invitation I used the idea of what it means when we take a leap of faith which after all is what YES Gallery is and what really all of my life has been and is now, especially after God walked into my life and began changing things around in 2005. As I've written before, that time was not only life changing for the way I felt and the things I did, but it changed my path to be one that was a walk of faith that is always and ever an adventure of healing that takes me into places that sometimes seem like I wouldn't have wanted to go. As the journey has gone on over these years, I've found that God always brings us through to a beautiful land, and that the places where He brings us are better than what we thought we wanted to begin with.

So Leap Year became a jumping off point for reminding myself of the gift of faith, of being able to take a leap of faith, of hope and dreams. The event itself was lovely, as events at YES Gallery always are, and this time for some reason it was peaceful too, as if God knew that I and the people who visited needed to be a little bit quiet and to take time to talk together and share moments that were joyful in a quieter way. I had scheduled it from 5pm-8pm, and during the entire time there were people coming and going, some I knew and some who were completely new to the gallery. The conversations shared were lovely, and the time shared together was very meaningful as we met in community and spoke with each other in a way that deepened friendships and began new ones.


Taking A Leap!
Faith And Dreams
Growing Into New Life
A Lovely Visitor Arrives
At YES Gallery





Blessings,

Jannie Susan


Sunday, February 25, 2024

An Abundant Life - Coming Home

I grew up in a farmhouse that was built in 1720, and though I've lived for much of my adult life in other places there's something about that house and the land around it that still feels like home. Recently I was back for a visit, and when I stopped into the local supermarket, a wonderful man working in the produce department said, "Welcome home!" and something about the way he said it and the way I was feeling, it touched something so deeply in me that I knew that I was home.

There are so many hopes and dreams that were born in that house. It is the first place where I ever came home to, and the place where I began writing about, the place where I wandered the fields and learned about bugs and bees and flowers and trees. In the area in the back, that I called the back, back yard where I used to wander, there were so many magical things. White violets, moss, tiny lace wings with their iridescent colors, and these wonderful juniper bushes that I discovered I could crawl into and hide in the center, making a kind of fairy home where I felt protected and surrounded by the beautiful scented evergreen boughs.

The person who I was lives on in the person I am now, and on this visit I could feel so much that the land and house and barn are just waiting for me to begin restoring it to what it had been when I was growing up and even longer before that. It has been in kind of sleep, the way an enchanted forest is, but underneath the overgrown areas and near the plantings that have not been nurtured for too long there is life that is waiting to be breathed into and taken up and in with the breath of all that is a part of the journey that is and was and is to come.


A Farmhouse Just Waiting
For Its New Chapter of Life







 


Blessings,

Jannie Susan

Sunday, February 18, 2024

An Abundant Life - Beauty Is

I've written about my adventures at Saks Fifth Avenue and the Chanel Beauty department in these pages before, and just this past week I had such another lovely wonderful time that I wanted to take a moment to give thanks to the beautiful Makeup Artist Brianna and the beautiful staff who made my afternoon so lovely.

It's been a very busy time for me for many,  many months now, and even when it's a holiday or my birthday or some other time when I would normally be able to just relax and enjoy myself my schedule has been so full with sometimes so many things that need my focus and attention that I can feel at times as if I really haven't had time to take the time I need to just be and breathe and enjoy the peace and beauty and joy of life. 

When I heard from a woman I know who works in the Chanel Beauty department at Saks that a very special Makeup Artist would be visiting for one day only, I was so happy to see that even though my week was a very full one, the day when she would be visiting I could make the time to be there. I set up the appointment, and when the day arrived I took the time to go and meet with her, deciding that because of the possibility of snow later in the evening that I would go straight home afterward rather than going to YES Gallery or doing other errands which is what I normally would have done. I also decided to give myself the time that I needed to just be there and not be thinking that I had to be somewhere else, and that in itself felt so relaxing. However short or long our appointment would be, I decided that I would let myself enjoy the experience fully without watching the time at all.

As I made my way there, I was running a little late, and because I don't like to keep people waiting I sent a message when I knew the time that I would most likely be arriving. For some reason that day, maybe because my week had already been so very full and very busy, I felt like I couldn't walk fast enough to get there when I wanted to. But when I arrived it was as if all my cares could just drop away because I was welcomed so kindly and made to feel so comfortable immediately with the true gift of hospitality and welcoming warmth that is created by the wonderful staff there.

Brianna began to do my makeup, adding wonderful skin products with such a beautiful gift of skill and touch that I felt like I was receiving the most luxurious facial. She followed that with beginning to add the makeup itself in the same beautifully relaxing and enjoyable way. As she added the different products and colors to the different parts of my face, she described everything carefully and showed me how she was doing each step. There was so much that was so wonderful to learn, and with each new layer and addition the makeup took on a new life that truly went with the way that I know my own face and the way that I would want to have myself look.

I've written in these pages before about my joy of having my makeup done by a professional Makeup Artist, because when they are truly Artists the experience always makes me feel so beautiful, cared for and special. When Brianna was finishing, I told her that what she was creating for me was the best that I could remember and I've had many beautiful experiences with Chanel Makeup Artists. At one point, the woman who had invited me to the event walked by and said, "Oh Wow! Those colors are so beautiful!" And she came back again later to repeat it again, adding about Brianna, "I told you she was really wonderful." It was such a beautiful afternoon, and I'm so grateful that in the busyness of life that I had this beautiful gift given to me of an afternoon of feeling like a princess.


A Visit To The Chanel Beaty Counter
With The Gorgeous Makeup Artist Brianna
At Saks Fifth Avenue
New York City

Feeling Like A Princess
On A Winter Evening





Blessings,

Jannie Susan



Sunday, February 11, 2024

An Abundant Life - Saying YES To Love

I wrote a few months ago about a wonderful Christmas Tree that arrived at YES Gallery from a sale at a house in Hoboken. It had belonged to a couple who I had met a few times because I always admired their outdoor displays in their screened in porch, and whenever I saw them I always said hello and thanked them for making such a beautiful place for people who walked by to enjoy. The tree is made of recycled wood pieces, and there is a story behind where the wood came from although I don't remember it now. When I had admired it one day they'd told me about it, and I think it had been made by an Artist, though I'm not sure. Whoever had made it and wherever the wood came from, there's something about it that is so special. It reminds me of things that my Mother always liked and she had a smaller version of something similar on her tabletop in recent years.

The tree was such a wonderful Christmas Tree, and because I don't really have a place to store it and I don't really want to ever put it somewhere where it can't be seen, I decided to decorate it year round in some way. After Christmas and the New Year celebrations, I began to take down my ornaments that were on the tree and in the windows of YES Gallery, but I left a few things on the tree that could become decorations for Valentine's Day. The vintage chandelier crystals I'd hung on the tree stayed, and the little white fairy lights too. And then I began to make Valentine's Day hearts from a roll of red foil Christmas wrapping paper that someone in my neighborhood had put out brand new and still in its protective plastic for recycling one night. When I began making the hearts, I planned to put them in the windows on the tree branches that are there which I did, and after cutting them out I noticed that the red foil that was left from cutting the heart shapes was something that could hang beautifully on my recycled wood tree. The inner shape was a heart, and the red foil paper is silver on one side, so when the pieces are hung on the tree branches, they make the whole tree glow with beautiful dangling red designs that look like hearts inside an open space.

As I began to decorate for Valentine's Day and fill the windows and the tree branches with red foil hearts and paper and other glowing and lovely red decorations, I thought about how important it is to remember that Love really is the answer. So often we think of Valentine's Day as a time for romance and it is, but it is also a day when we can be reminded that love is a powerful force for good in the world. It doesn't always feel easy to love, as we get older and have experiences that make us feel like sometimes our love is not understood or is taken for granted, but love is never wasted, and opening our hearts to saying yes to love will not only bring more love into our lives but will also keep us feeling joyful and able to feel young at heart and at peace.


The Valentine's Day Tree
And Window Decorations
At YES Gallery
408 6th Street
Hoboken, New Jersey








Blessings,

Jannie Susan