Gratitude, Part Two

My first post of the New Year brings some sad news for the Preston Wynne family--our beloved 80-years-young client "Jenny," featured in my last posting of 2009, passed away earlier this month. She will be deeply missed by all who worked with her.

Jenny's poise, elegance and beauty were an inspiration to me, not just as external qualities I admired as someone in the "beauty business," but because they represented qualities that are all too rare in today's overexposed, frantically tweeted lives. I was grateful to see photographs of the young Jenny at her memorial, and was struck by the fact that her understated natural beauty evolved gracefully over the arc of her life. And as selflessly devoted as she was to her husband and family of rambunctious boys--whose broods ultimately included over a dozen grandchildren--she held a place in her world for self-care.

As professionals who obsess over stray eyebrow hairs, whether a lipstick is too coral or too pink, or the proper way to exfoliate someone's skin, our work doesn't immediately evoke the nobler helping professions, such as nursing or teaching. But as someone who's had the honor to brighten the day and lightly lift the self-esteem of thousands and women and men over the past twenty five years, I can say that there are few careers more gratifying.

In college, I studied painting, and envisioned a fairly solitary profession in a studio. To keep body and soul together, I became a makeup artist, and found myself in the crowded aisles of department stores, painting stranger's faces. To my complete surprise, I fell in love with the "beauty business," and then skin care, and eventually spa. It has been wonderful people like Jenny who have made that career path so very rewarding. These days, I spend much of my time on the "business to business" side, working with spa owners across the US, but moments like the one I was able to share with Jenny this past summer--one on one in a quiet treatment room--are still the most resonant.

My sincere thanks to all of you who have given us the honor of being part of your lives!