Behind the Cover

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Blogs

As I mentioned in my last post, I was in California ... for the purposes of shooting the cover of the premiere issue of Spry. Our featured reader, Mary Blackmon, is a completely dynamic woman who shows her spry self even at first glance. She's full of ideas and has the guts to act on them. If you read her story , you'll know she made a major change in her late 30s. But what's most interesting to me is that her new career ... sharing the spa life with other deserving women who need a break and a good dose of balance ... merges the personal with the professional. Mary's own need to create a healthier life drove her to start a business to help bring other women along with her.

I can totally relate. Although I was a trained journalist, it wasn't until I went through my 70-pound weight loss journey that I found my niche as a health writer and editor. Over the 20 or so years since I lost the weight, I've been able to take what I have learned and the personal passion I have for that ...add my need to change the world (!) ... and use it to get the message out that making a healthy transformation IS POSSIBLE! I see what I do now as a way of reaching out, facilitating healthy changes, connecting people who need motivation and advice with those who can deliver it ... not simply as a journalistic exercise.

Back to the shoot ... one of the best things about the trip was the chance to work again with photographer Nigel Barker. Nigel is probably best known as a judge on America's Next Top Model, but he's much more than that (he will be laughing at me for this post!). I was lucky enough to spend 11 days traveling across the country with him as part of a project we did on real beauty a few years ago,and saw him in action--he can make just about any woman comfortable in front of a camera (although he hasn't shot ME yet!). He has a real, genuine interest in people of all backgrounds that brings out the best in them.

Nigel is another one who is merging his personal interests with the professional. He told me he had wanted to be a marine biologist when he was younger, until he won a modeling competition on a lark, and then went from modeling to photography. Now, he is getting up close and personal with endangered species though his volunteer work with the Humane Society. He recently shot a print photography show and documentary about the baby seals in Antarctica, and has plans to do more to bring attention and awareness to other endangered animal populations.

To me, all this says that even dreams we may have set aside in our past have a way of bubbling up at some point ... maybe not in the same form we first imagined them, but still with the essence of the original. And maybe the task is to remember those dreams and wishes of the past, and figure out a way to bring them, in some way, into our present ...

Until next time ...

Lisa D