Internet Inspiration – July 31, 2016

As you read this post, I’m leaving my beloved Pittsburgh. * dissolves into a puddle of tears * Read some good internet writing for me.

If you are not following Jade Beall Photography on facebook, RUN, do not walk to follow here. This portrait is remarkable:

I couldn’t move and couldn’t hide my emotions as I remained in the pose, silently weeping while the students continued to draw me.

They drew my pose, they drew the light around the pose, and they drew my tears.

When the timer went off. Nobody moved. The instructor had to tap on her desk to break the spell.

Today, at 74 years of age, I no longer work as an artists’ model and, when I take my clothes off and look in the mirror I am, of course, flabbier and dimplier than when I was over 15 years ago.

But an older, more flabby and more dimply self is not what I see.

What I see is the great indelible truth that was revealed to me in that junior college classroom.

I see that at any age, in any shape and at any weight; I am something beautiful to look at, to appreciate and to cherish.

I’ve been reading a lot of Ryan Holiday (also, if you’re interested in a good newsletter, he has a Reading List email that goes out once a month. It’s one way I’ve been finding a lot of book recommendations, particularly memoirs and nonfiction.) Here’s a great archived post about how to travel.

It’s hard for me to see anything to envy in most people who travel. Because deep down that is what they are doing. Fleeing themselves and the lives they’ve created. Or worse, they’re telling themselves that they’re after self-discovery, exploration or perspective when really they are running towards distraction and self-indulgence.

Is that why you’re packing up your things and hitting the road?

Are you, as Emerson once put it, “bringing ruins to the ruins?”

The purpose of travel, like all important experiences, is to improve yourself and your life. It’s just as likely — in some cases more likely — that you will do that closer to home and not further.

I was so honored that my friend and amazing photographer Elizabeth Craig included me in a roundup of Badass Boss Ladies. She was inspired by Hillary Clinton’s presidential nomination and wanted to highlight more women leaders. Check me and the other four women featured, and stick around for Elizabeth’s incredible photography skillz.

I ADORE these prints of the female form. I want to buy prints AND I want to wallpaper my house in these patterns.