Our new blogger, Roberta Raye is talented! We are so pleased that she is the latest addition to our team. Her beat is "Practical Manifestation." And we say, welcome, Roberta, welcome!
I am absolutely thrilled to have the chance to join the Spirited Woman Blogger Team! Especially since I’ll be writing about my all-time favorite topic - the magical intersection of mindset and concrete actions where great things happen in the world.
My first experience of Practical Manifestation came in middle school. When I was a young girl, it was agreed by all that I was homely and destined to stay that way. Tall and gawky, with lanky hair, coke-bottle glasses, and serious buck-teeth; I was the last chosen for anything. It didn’t help that I was smart, and constantly singled out for (unwanted) extra attention by the teachers. In eighth grade, headgear, braces and a Milwaukie-style back brace were added to the mix. I know, right?
In an effort to be kind (I do see that now), while I was crying my heart out about not being invited to the 8th grade dance, my mother told me “You should be glad you’re smart, not pretty. This way, if a boy ever likes you, it’s because he really likes who you are inside.” I knew boys, and it didn’t sound likely they would see it this way, and it also didn’t sound like much fun. So I dried my tears, and went back into my bedroom, and at the ripe age of 14, decided that somehow, I was going to make myself into one of the pretty ones. No matter what!
This was 1978, long before there were makeover shows, extreme or otherwise. We were poor, so there was no chance of buying my way into the right clothes, let alone plastic surgery, had it even been an option back then. Since no woman in my entire extended family was (or even considered herself to be) attractive, I had no role models. I was on my own. I did what any desperate smart girl would do - I studied.
I read, I watched movies, I imagined: I learned and practiced the inner and outer game of beauty. I had heartbreaking setbacks, like when my father laughed out loud when I said I wanted to be Miss America, but by the time I was 18, I was first runner-up for Daffodil Princess — about as close to Miss America as you can get in Tacoma, Washington. Without any outside intervention (besides contact lenses) I had transformed, both within myself and in the way the world saw me.
I’ll be 50 this year, and of course I long ago realized that there is a whole lot more to life than being “pretty.” But, in transforming myself, I became fascinated with the mechanics of what it takes to transform our selves and our circumstances - even when every bit of evidence and opinion seem to disagree.
I am honored to be able to use what I have learned in a lifetime of study and practice to support other spirited women as we create the lives of our dreams, bringing the art and science of Practical Manifestation to any area we long to create and/or transform!
Roberta Raye, http://www.robertaraye.com
Click here to read more of Roberta's posts.
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