Give The Gift Of Love During Christmas, Kwanzaa & Hanukkah 2021

Yesterday, Spanx founder Sara Blakey posted a photo of her holding a coffee mug with a quote from Alice in "Alice in Wonderland": "You're entirely bonkers. But I'll tell you a secret: All the best people are." And Sara's post comment was "trust your gut....and Embrace your bonkers!" My response to her comment was that I knew some people thought I was going bonkers (creating a unique product niche with no known benchmark) .....and that I will continue to go bonkers. I trusted my gut feeling...something that many of my mentors in the fragrance industry have always told me. I believe in the "gut" feeling and other creatives who dare to take a concept idea, or innovative approach to their art to create something incredibly beautiful and emotionally life-changing.

As a youngster living on a small farm in Arkansas, I always knew my life as an adult would be connected to the creative world and I followed that path. I had wanted to be an architect, but was told my mathematical skills were not "there" so I bypassed that idea, but continue to admire works of great architecture from the ancient times to renaissance and modern. I entered the fashion world when, at the young age of 19, hopped on a train in St. Louis for an overnight ride to Penn Station in New York. I'll never forget the day stepping out onto the sidewalk of Penn Station where all the pigeons were feeding on bread crumbs on the side walk and I thought about that famous scene of the elegant Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday. It am a romantic and dreamer and followed my dream, hung out with artists down in SoHo, continued writing journals, followed the fashion world and designed accessories for a small brand selling into Bendels, Riding High, Charivari (remember those retailers?). After one year, I found myself in the intriguing, mysterious world of the fragrance industry, where the chief perfumer gave me a smelling test and discovered I had a great sense of smell (could it have been due to the exposure to all different kinds of smells from the barnyard to fresh peaches and flowers?) and so, that started my career.

In March 2021 I experienced the feeling of a dying soul inside me, and so I did something that most people probably (silently) thought that I was going bonkers, but I left a stagnant life to save my soul, and have had the ability to rediscover my religion, creativity, grow my product line, practice my writing, reconnect with old friends from around the world, and connect with a broad spectrum of people from all walks of life. My community is the world community and I hope that in 2022, people will learn to reconnect to the purist of their youngest soul and dreams and come back together.

I am inspired by creatives and have a natural connection with artists of all genres and I will be highlighting one artist at a time in the next few weeks focusing on what inspires them. Of several, I'll be featuring a Parisian-based artistic designer/creator, a master perfumer from Venice, a very cool young woman who I met at this year's Art Basel who builds custom motor cycles and has turned them into brilliant works of art, a lyricist turned painter, and more. In the meantime, think about what this year means to so many people from different walks of life and religions and give the gift of love.