It is so incredibly nice to be back in my house after 3 long months, but of course also to be able to start my Permanently Beautiful practice again. The damage and backlog is not too bad, my garden that I loved to root in looked dry, but weeds don’t decay. There was a thistle of about 70 cm almost in bloom, I took it out immediately, I couldn’t let that go. Weeds, and certainly thistles, are removed, just like plucking an eyebrow; I like to keep the path of the ideal shape of your eyebrow smooth.
An old saying which indicates in meaning: that the most useless or bad people often live the longest. But for me, it means never give up and the strongest survive. The big surprise, in fact, I found inside the house. There is still a very old-fashioned plant in the kitchen. It belonged to my grandmother and I think at least 40 years old. It didn’t get a drop of water in these C. times. Yet it still looks florid. What a surprise it looks like this. It came from my dear grandmother Jaantje, whom I was named after. This clivia that is put on water rationing in winter will bloom from poverty in spring with big orange flowers. After winter and also 3 months of Corona time, I have only now been able to water it. It now remains to be seen in the coming weeks whether even that succeeds. The confidence is there that weeds don’t perish and that we will get through C. This clivia is actually a metaphor for me, my roots and my future and my practice for Permanently Beautiful.
In practice, I restore people, often women… I complete again what was unfinished or what needed to be. Surely my pleasure and joy for my craft is often in persevering just as I did for my grandmother’s old clivia but also as I love rooting in my garden.
I’m glad to be able to drive across the border from Belgium and the Netherlands again and work for 3 weeks or so to experience that job satisfaction again. How I missed it all: the thistle, the clivia, my garden, my work with a mask. This extra hygiene has become very familiar by now and working without a mask has become strange. What a strange world we are also slowly anticipating and learning to cope with.
Another current topic is of a completely different nature: anti-racism. How appropriate, in the second week I had one a white and one a black skin to restore. I made both women happy by colouring in their white scars. From the dark lady, I learnt what she calls her skin; dark, black or black. I was actually unsure how to say that neatly: just black, dark, black. Learnt something again in the past few weeks after starting the practice.
I hope to do my bit.
Below I show two recent photos with dark skin scars, these are very common. There is a demand for them at the moment.
Want to know more or have a question? Feel free to contact me for free advice and together we will look at how I can best help you.
