Discoveries of the Past...

It is comforting to find things that Katrina didn't take from me and even more rewarding when a friend rescues from a pile of trash that my mother planned to throw in a trash heap to be taken away to a city land fill something so beautiful that I have chosen to re-type word for word something that was so beautifuly written back in May of 1973 that it brought tears to my eyes. This work was was written for my grandmother. She inspired a woman to write these wonderful words about her... I guess that is enough of a forward... I present to you....

THE ESSENCE OF CHARM

WRITTEN FOR

'EVE BLANDIN DE LAY'

MAY 1973

Charm is the ultimate force, the supreme weapon against which there there are few defenses. If you've got it, you need neither money or power. It is a gift, given only to give away and the more used the more there is. Charm is a climate of behavior set for perpetual summer and controlled thermostatically by taste and tact.
Charm is an aura, it is invisible; if you see it working, the spell is broken. Charm is dynamic and cannot be turned on and off at will. As to its ingredients, there is no fixed formula. A whole range of mysteries into the cauldron, but the magic it offers must be absolute - one cannot be 'almost' or 'partly' charming.
Charm is a light in the face, a twinkle in the eye. a certain jauntiness in step, an air of exclusive welcome, an almost impossible sustained note of satisfaction in one's company, and regret without fuss at parting. Someone with charm finds no one dull; in deed in her presence we become the person we most want to be. Charm is the voice and eyes. Charm turns the lightest words to pure gold, charm is like the flower in the desert, when there is nobody there to see it.
Charm spreads that particular glow of well-being ; of a calm and pacifying presence, which can dispel a moment of frustration and anger and restore what might otherwise be lost. Charm is an originality of touch you have to be born with .
Or is it something that grows naturally out of another quality like the simple desire to make people to make people happy.
Certainly charm is not a question of learning tricks like wrinkling your nose, or having a laugh in your voice. It is built-in awareness of others. Charm is sensitivity, and power to please, generosity which makes no demands. Charm spends itself willingly on young and old alike. It reveals itself in a sense of ease, in casual but perfect manners.
Charm in the end is a most potent act of behavior, the laying down of a carpet by one person for another to give his existence a moment of honor. It is close to love in that it moves without force, bearing gifts like the growth of daylight.
Charm is an enchanted dart, as subtle as a hummingbird. In essence, charm is 'EVE BLANDIN DE LAY'.
WRITTEN BY
MARIE M. CARTER
MAY 1973

I owe Ducky for saving this from the city land fill.... my grandmother was my mentor in life... hers was the voice on the EVP that we picked up that made me break down... but she was they type of woman that just inspired people ... and this is a prime example .... I just had to share...

THANKS DUCK MAN.... I OWE YOU ONE!!!