Unconditional

Carlin Glynn as 'Miss Mona'

I adore my mother.  In fact, she has given me quite a standard to live up to, although she has never made that a condition of her love.  No, her love has always been unconditional.  She has always been an environmental activist, and an actor, but I think she would say that being a wife and mother came first.  She was married when she was only 20 years old and is still married to my Dad.  The other day she told me that she and Dad had figured out that she had cooked roughly 56,000 meals in their 50 years together.  I don’t know how they arrived at that number, but I’m guessing that that’s a conservative estimate!

My father co-wrote and directed a show called The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas back in 1978 and Mom played Miss Mona, the Madame, on Broadway where she won the Tony Award, and in London where she won its equivalent, the Olivier Award.  It was a grueling schedule for her; eight shows a week for three years, with matinees on Wednesdays and Saturdays in NY.  In London it was worse, eight shows a week with Friday and Saturday shows at 5:30 and 8:30pm.  She’d run off the stage from the finale for the first show and the stage manager would announce over the PA system, “Ladies and Gentlemen this is your half-hour call ten minutes late”.  By Sunday morning she was exhausted and could barely get out of bed.  She always managed to have supper with us after school whenever possible though, even if she had to race downtown to get ready.  A female journalist was interviewing her once and asked her, “How do you do it?  How do you take care of a family and manage to have a successful acting career?”  She replied, “Gladys Richards.”  Gladys was our beloved housekeeper/second Mom for twenty-five years who took care of us, and nurtured Mom when she really needed it while working so hard.  The lady journalist didn’t want to hear it.  She preferred to preserve the myth of the super-woman who could do it all by herself.  It was the 70s after all.

I tell this story because it illustrates a crucial point for me; that the wise woman knows when she can’t do it all alone, and that even if your mother is no longer with you, it’s extremely important to remember to take the time to mother yourself.  Our lives are busy, and stressful and we, as women, care for so many people day-to-day.  It’s easy to skip self-care when we are tired. 

For me, taking a bath and giving myself a facial relaxes me and restores me to myself.  All of our products use the power of aromatherapy with the finest Essential Oils to transport, relax, and nurture you after a busy day.  Try our FABULOUS FACIAL CLEANSING OIL to remove your makeup.  Take a wet washcloth and thoroughly and gently remove all traces of makeup and dirt from your face.  Massage a bit more of the OIL into your skin in gentle, circular motions, close your eyes and relax in the tub for at least ten minutes.   Rinse.  Follow this with our EXFOLIATING AHA SCRUB to remove dead skin and reveal the fresh, younger layer you already have underneath.   Get out of the tub and spritz your face with our SIMPLY ROSEWATER TONER or LAVENDER & SEA MINERALS TONER.  Both will relax you.  Smooth a dime-sized amount of one of our SERUMS, such as our NOURISHING MEADOWFOAM FACIAL SERUM for a deeply penetrating shot of vitamins, and finish up with our SIMPLY ROSES CREAM.  The delicate scent of Bulgarian Roses will carry you out of yourself and uplift your senses.

Our Moms are our touchstones.  God knows mine has pulled me through some tough times.  I’ll never be able to repay her.  I can try to make her proud though, in learning how to mother myself – or at least worry a little less about me.  If that’s possible.