We made it! All the way across the country by car--no tickets, no accidents, no getting lost. As I expected, I did a lot of thinking about home, and finding out what home means to other people. See the results of my informal survey at my blog:  Did I Learn Anything About Home?

As you probably know, Mother's Day is this weekend. A manufactured holiday to be sure, but one that forces us to consider those most important women in our lives. In this issue of SOS Monthly, I introduce you to my terrible mother.

And, in honor of mothers everywhere, I'm making a special "Audiences With Queens" offer to all of you.

Wishing you all a marvelous May!

P.S. There's a lot going on at my blog--you really should head over and take a look. Recent entries include:  The Movement Still Has Impact, How to Start a Movement?, and I Feel a Manifesto Coming On...

Meet My Mother

My mom is cool. Not in the way that celebrity moms like Madonna or Teri Hatcher are cool, but in the more normal—“I don’t need millions of dollars to make me cool”—cool. So cool that my teenage daughter actually wants to go to her house for the weekend just to hang out.

My daughter thinks my mom is cool because they watch TV, shop and go to the beach together, and they both giggle at the silliest things. I also think my mom is cool, but for an entirely different reason.

She loves me unconditionally, and I know it. I ended up going to business school, entering the corporate world and eventually starting a company. I know that she would love me just the same if I had gone to beauty school and worked in a salon, or if I had decided to pursue an acting career.

If you ask her, she’ll tell you that she was a terrible mother. From the time I was in grade school, she was a single parent of three kids. We were alone after school because she had to work full time. We didn’t go on vacations; we didn’t have a lot of new clothes and other stuff; we didn’t get our own cars when we turned 16. If we wanted to go to college, we had to pay for it ourselves. When we turned 18, we had to move out of the house. Of course when we were teenagers, we thought she was the Queen of All Evil.

But she loved us unconditionally, and we knew it. We may not have wanted to admit it, but we knew it. And it’s made all the difference, at least for me. I’ve learned to trust my own instincts, and to believe that I can handle anything. I know that no matter what I do, there’s at least one person who’ll tell me I did a great job.

I’m lucky I had such a terrible mother. If you didn’t have a mom like mine, you’ll have to learn to give yourself unconditional love. Easy for me to say, right? Try it:

1. Set up your start-up screens (computer, mobile phone, etc.) to give you some love. When I turn on my phone, I see, “Greetings, O Great and Powerful Queen!”
2. Go to Hallmark.com and send yourself some love. You can pick the card, create a message, and set it to be sent on whatever date in the future you want. Why not send a “You’re So Great” card to yourself every month?
3. Recruit a friend to be your fountain of unconditional love. Set up a daily, weekly, or monthly date to get together and pat each other on the back.

So thanks, Mom, for being so cool. I hope that I’ll be as terrible a mother as you are. However, I’m not sure I can carry off a birthday cake hat as well as you can.

More About Mothers...

From a recent edition of Women's eNews, a commentary by Peggy Drexler outlines mothers' contributions to public life:

"With Mother's Day fast approaching, Peggy Drexler looks at the positive influence that mothers are having over public life. As they make their mark on laws and culture, women with children reshape society in the image of one big family."

Read the article now...

"Audiences with Queens" Special Offer

In honor of Mother's Day, I'm making all "Audiences with Queens" available at no charge! That's right, until June 1, you can download and listen to as many of the full-length versions of the Audiences as you want to. That's over six and half hours of expert advice on everything from small business marketing to pole dancing for fitness! A $39.60 value, yours at no cost.

Listen now...

Get Involved, Get In Touch

If you’re interested in exploring more about life transformation, personal power, and cage rattling, or just about tiaras and the really cool women who wear them, here are just some of the ways for you to connect.

Visit my blog, Creating An Ideal Life While Wearing a Tiara. I post all kinds of musings, questions and general craziness here, and you’re welcome to join in and comment on any and all postings.

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The mission of SOS Monthly is to inspire and empower you to lead the big life you want--right now! Comments, feedback and ideas for stories are always welcome.  Also, please feel free to forward this along to anyone who might be interested and/or benefit from its contents. All story ideas, comments and suggestions are most welcome.  Send me your input!

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©2006 by Barbara Bellissimo. All rights reserved.