There are other BENEFITS too... !!!

Our eyes....

The way we see the world

And I guess probably one of the first things people notice about your face.

Not much we can do about our eyes...

I can not complain. I am happy with the eyes I got.

Still no glasses, contacts or eye surgery...

Yes - I did go into panic mode when I realised I neglected to take good care of the areas around my eyes!!

(read my earlier entry about the sagging eyebrow saga in this post:

"Replacing the old with the new..."

Not much we can do about it.

But I swear by MASCARA - if nothing else - plain mascara does the trick for ME!

No matter what kind of emergency or time crisis ....

I ALWAYS make time for Mascara.

Just my thing...even if it turns out little cloggy like the above !

But, WHEN there is time for MAKE-UP, we can do magic and transform our eyes !

It can be work...and so many people neglect....

but it doesn't need to be work if you find the right thing for you !!!

I Found something great!

And if you have a great product - I would LOVE to know!!

About a year ago, I bought this little nifty "all-in-one" eye make-up from 'benefit"..... 

It almost went unnoticed because it is in a cardboard box and not a fancy shiny container and it had almost put me off from buying it - not sure whether it would last!!!

But it DID and after a year, the content was done and the container still in perfect shape !

Last week I picked up 2 new boxes again at the airport!!

And today I just want to say - I LOVE it !!

So I want to do my share of giving them the benefit of having a GREAT product that others might not know of - 

just - spreading the word!

If you have not tried this - it is WORTH giving it a try.

I can not vouch for any other products but I love how they have the perfect combinations in their eye make-up kits - for my everyday use.

Ever bought those sets where you use one or maybe 2 out of the 6 colours you got??

The OTHER BENEFIT is that it comes with complete instructions.

We all know how you start to fall into the same routine ....

and how fun to get a free make-up lesson - without having to go sit in the cosmetics section of a department store on a high chair just to get an update on the "how to" for eyes !!!!

It works wonderfully !!

I got this new one (well - new for me!) and am looking forward to give it a go today...

You can find it here:

http:www.benefitcosmetics.com

LET ME KNOW how it works for you - 

OR if you have any other BEAUTY products that goes a little "unnoticed"
but has worked wonders for you !!

I would love to know your secrets.

Through the eyes of an Alzheimer patient...

Eyes are the windows to the Soul!

This week I had to travel a very very far distance to go help and be there for my mother leaving home to a place of care for Alzheimer patients...the only one in town. This certainly has been one of the worst realities of our family's path that we had no choice but to just deal with....

Slowly over the past seven years we have watched my mother deteriorate..but nothing as dramatic as the past 3 months...

When I saw her last in December 2009, she still had some sparkle in her eye...recognising all of us - kids and grandkids...
This week, I was saddened to notice her eyes looking straight at me..as if a blind person...not recognising any of us.....her eyes were glazy and gloom and it was as if there was no soul behind them.

Alzheimers robbed her of her personality and has left her with some outbursts of anger and trauma. This, while the certificate of her being named the town's friendliest person and friendship person of note - awarded by the City Council, proudly hangs on the wall of her bleak room...

This is what we see looking into her eyes from the outside. Who will ever know what she sees looking from within to the outside world? We have no idea what she might still know and what not..as she is unable to structure and organise her thoughts and words.

One of the patients asked me how it is possible that he was locked up in jail (referring to the steel gate that keeps them in).....if he had done nothing.....?! He is awaiting trial (he says)...but nobody can tell him what his crime was..

And that is the sad part - it has nothing to do with their own doing....no crime on their part....it is something that just came upon each of the 22 patients in this fascility...all of them at a different stage of the disease.

To drop her off just days after their 50th wedding anniversary, has been and will be a traumatic event for a very long time for my father who is still going to his office every day...still a working citizen.

You can never mistake what is going on in someone's soul when you look into their eyes....
Looking into my mothers eyes made me realize that there is no return...there is no other option but making peace with this reality ... there is very little left there....

And when I left to come back home.... I could not say goodbye... I simply had to leave.... telling her that I would be back the next day.....feeling guilty but also glad that she would not know that the next day would only be in eight months' time when I will  return back "home"....

Kids are suppose to leave home...not parents...

But through the eyes of an Alzheimer patient...the world becomes a blur and nothing make sense anymore....
...sometimes because it does not make sense....
             ....and sometimes because THEY can not make sense out of the things that still have meaning..

Robbing them is a crime...not on anyone's account..but the family is left with the emptiness of it all...

But the grateful part comes into the fact that she had a good, full life and lived life to the full each and every day she had the presence of mind...and for this lesson, I am thankful to my mother ..if only I can be as good as she was fulfilling this philosophy...!