I received an email from a man at growingbolder.com who asked me what I was most grateful for. I replied, “Hair.”

I sifted through my cornucopia of gratitude and thought…corny. I don’t want to sound corny. I am grateful for so many things, but for some reason its personal. I’m grateful, but its rather vulnerable for me to express gratitude, so I said "hair."

However, it IS Thanksgiving Day.

Our morning haze was interrupted by a heavy thunk on the window.

“Was it a bird?” I asked Robert, knowing of course it was, but what else do you say…

“Yeah, it’s struggling,” he said. I looked out.

“It’s a Robin.”

“No, they’ve all gone south,” he replied, as he always does. Like he knows a fact and it’s an absolute truth.

“It’s a Robin, Robert, there are bunch of them.”

As our eyes panned our yard into the neighbors’ we saw what seemed like hundreds of Robins.

“It’s Lois,” I decided. “She says ‘Happy Thanksgiving.’” .

Lois is my Grandmother whose body gave up 6 years ago. Her spirit touches me frequently. Last night it was a color – a rose-beige fabric in “White Christmas,” the sappy-but-I-love-it holiday movie we watch at least twice a year. The carpeting at "the farm" was rose beige, but by the time I could remember it, it was more …“greige.”

Thoughts come pouring when Lois touches me. She touches me when I smell lilacs. She touches me when I taste a root beer float. She touches me every Halloween and I think “popcorn balls.” She touches me when I bend over to pick up a crumb off the carpet. She touches me when I see a robin.

Spirits are stronger in the holiday season. So too is sentiment, I suppose. On Thanksgiving it is gratitude that strikes me -- hard enough too forget about being corny, and to just be grateful. Grateful for memories. Grateful for this lifetime.

I am so grateful. I’m grateful that I can live with the person with whom eternity isn’t long enough to fully appreciate. I’m grateful that my Mother has found true love, twice in one lifetime. I’m grateful that I was published, and people are touched. I’m grateful to have employees who are devoted. I’m grateful for two of the most beautiful babies in the world that press up against us hard and growl in soft happiness. I’m grateful for this…being able to express myself, at a computer, in front of a fire as flocks of birds dance through the trees. I’m grateful for so much.

And I’m grateful for hair.

Sometimes we forget who we are, or where we’re going, or who we are trying to become. Sometimes a day turns into a week, then a month and soon, we’re just coasting. Living life by default instead of creating it how we want.

That was the core reason for writing “Staging Your Comeback.” The belief was that if I have to look at a sheet of paper every day just to keep myself in check then others must need it to. That’s how the beauty revival guide that accompanies the book was created.

Understandably, for several reasons, my publisher didn’t want to produce a beauty revival guide to accompany the book. So I created the system for people to do it themselves. Using downloads from my site and the tenets of the book, it is fairly easy.

Now I want to create a beauty revival guide already assembled, so the process is that much easier. And visually, I believe if I provide an actual guidebook with all the pages to fill out and check off in it, I’m more likely to follow through with my plan. I’m that way. I like a kit.

So I need your help. I’ve gotten so many emails from people who’ve gone through the system and are seeing remarkable results. Great stories. But I know I’ve missed something. So I need your ideas. How can I make the beauty revival guide stronger and more helpful? How can I arrange it so it’s simplified, yet more effective at getting you off your butt and out of the rut?

I’d love to include stories. I’d like to include motivational quotes (got any that move you? Send them along!) I’d like it to become a piece you look at every day that is your motivation to become your best yet.

So I’m just asking for your ideas. What would you like to see in this guide that could help it help you look forward to cracking it open and getting on task? Throw them at me. Especially those of you have created your own revival guide and tailored it to your needs. You must have some great ideas I can use.

That’s it. A long way of saying…I need you to help me help you look, and be, your best.

Just email me back with any ideas. All are welcome.

Thank you,

Chrisotpher

I lost my virginity yesterday. To the world of television hosting. I've done a TV show or two, but yesterday, October 13th, marked my first venture into actually hosting a live television show. Totally different scene.

When head producer from Twin Cities Live asked me if I had ever read a teleprompter, as she was nodding like "say yes, because we don't have time to go over it," I said. "yes." And I have. I've read a million teleprompters ... but never out loud. I figured we'd run through it, and was waiting, but alas, we didn't, it was live, and there was no going back.

I also learned that a word could be cut off in the middle while reading a teleprompter. Which is why I thought I was talking about a hospital named Brea St. Cancer..., but it turned out I was supposed to say Breast Cancer. Oops.

It was fun, though, and a baptism by fire experience I'd gladly do again.

You can check it out here.

Click "Christopher Hopkins" for the opening segment.

I just have to share these. They really hit home the reason I do what I do, and hopefully you can relate.

Hello Christopher Hopkins, I've never written to an author before but after finishing your book, Staging Your Comeback, I had to let you know how much I enjoyed a book that was not only full of valuable information but also written with a little crazy humor!

Over the years I've read a zillion books on make-up and fashion but now that I'm in my fifties (how did that happen so fast?) I realize I need to re-learn what I thought I knew and re-adjust what I thought worked. (If Madonna can transform herself so many times why can't I?) So, while I was not starting at zero in many ways, I still needed to be reminded of some of the basics that have gotten blurry over the years. In addition, you provided some cool new thoughts that I've added to my new me.

And, thank you again for a writing style that is to the point but takes the time to have a little fun along the way. There were several instances when I nearly fell out of my chair with laughter!

Good job!

Best wishes, TB, a new fan in Ada, Ohio

Hi Christopher,

You genius, you! How did you know that at 43, I’d put my children first for so many years, and that my home-based freelance writing business allowed me to sink into a state of comfortable pigginess?

Your book allowed me to remember what it felt like to take the time and effort to say to the world, “Hey, here I am!” I really had let the passing years fade the memory; it was a very natural slide to invisibility.

But now, with both our sons in college, my limp hair longer than it should be, my makeup drawer outdated and unused, and 20 pounds from somewhere (oh, that would be the pigginess) cushioning my frame, I don’t know where to start!

But, I’ve got still got the assets (so to speak). At 5’10” and with pale skin and dramatic dark hair and eyes, I remember there was a stunning woman in there. But still, I believe my beauty lies in my confidence, passion, intellect, and general love of life. And that’s why I adore your book so much: you recognize that a woman’s beauty and allure “comes from within,” with plenty of expert “help from without.”

So – I want to be a make-over subject for you. Are you writing a sequel? Starting your own TV show? Need make-over candidates for your speaking engagements? I know there are plenty of good make-over artists around, but I want you. Because you get it.

And you’re a sharp businessman; aging baby boomer women will part with bags of money for your advice. And you’re witty, a talented writer, and most of all sincere. Boy, you sell yourself. I’m sold.

OK, enough love. Can I be a make-over candidate? I can email you some before pics!

But most of all, thank you. Somehow, over the years, I had forgotten that I was worth that effort.

You rock my world!

Kelli
Wilmington, NC