Alice’s Book Club – AUTUMN session of 2023

“Face of Peace”
Drawing by Picasso (1950)

Days around here are getting cooler and cooler, but on Friday (October 27’23) I organized the autumnal session of my seasonal book club series, which is also the last session of the current year, and the chosen topic was “Reinventing yourself”…an interesting, while intriguing concept, genuinely appreciated by everyone. Comfortably, we have gathered on-line for our evening talks.

This time as well I had 2 special guest speakers: my dear friend, writer and well-known painter, visual artist Pnina Granirer (here is her website: www.pninagranirer.com), and my dear friend Rodica P. (a retired electrical engineer), both discussing their perspectives on the above mentioned theme. Definitively, both these ladies captured the audience with their wisdom, with their extensive life experience, and more than anything else, with their charming attitude which in a way left us wonder how both of them managed to maintain their poise unaltered while facing so many challenging situations in their lives. Without any doubt, such amazing people are precious in many ways, and the only thing I truly wish is to see younger generations value more the wisdom of the ones before them.

Anyhow, before I will give you the usual briefing with few main concepts of general interest (like I always do), I would like to share with you something else, equally amazing, in my opinion.

Recently we had in our city the “Vancouver Fashion Week”, which is the second largest fashion week in North America, very popular around here, featuring a large variety of runway shows, all sorts of industry professionals and many, many designers from all over the world.

Being super busy at that very time, I couldn’t attend it, but a very dear friend of mine went and there she met an amazing lady from Japan (her name is Akiko), who featured during her presentation in Vancouver our traditional Romanian dresses. My friend found that amazing and knowing that I will also be so super excited about the concept, she invited Akiko at our event, on October 27’23…and, as the saying goes…the rest is history….

Because I found Akiko’s work in Japan absolutely fascinating, I had her open the evening and give us all a brief talk about her activity in Japan. As a result, we’ve all learned that Akiko went to Romania (in Northern part, in Maramureş area), with the clear desire to learn more about the Romanian traditional dresses, as well as our traditional embroideries. She traveled through our old villages, meeting people, taking lots of pictures, appreciating our traditional foods and truly enjoying, for the time being, our countryside.

Needless to say that myself, as a person borne in Romania, listening to the beautiful stories of this amazing Japanese lady about my birth country brought so much joy to my heart. Below, I’ve put together a concise collage featuring Akiko’s passion for the Romanian culture, her store in Kyoto from where she sells throughout the world lots of traditional dresses from Romania, as well as her Instagram page (here is the link: https://www.instagram.com/rochie_romanian_vintage/).
Also, for your reference, here is the YouTube video of Akiko’s participation at Vancouver Fashion week, where her models were exhibiting the Romanian vintage dresses. At our gathering, Akiko herself was wearing a traditional Romanian dress. All in one, a truly amazing story!  
Now, coming back to my 2 special guest speakers of this beautiful evening: as I’ve mentioned, each of their presentations brought to our attention many, many valuable points. Lots of questions were answered and many more were raised, being graciously addressed.  

For your benefit, here are few concepts of general interest:

- Major life changes are never easy, but if you focus you will be surprised of how much you could achieve

- Before you plan to reinvent yourself, first of all you have to know who you really are (know your strengths, weaknesses, passions, etc.)

- Have a good understanding of what is going on in the world, clearly list all the opportunities you are noticing & try to match what suits you

- In life it is important to evaluate yourself objectively, and keep at by the tendency of illusory superiority

- It is significant to find a functional balance between the goals you wish to chase and your values (what really matters to you)

- As you integrate reinvention efforts into your daily life, remember to always be honest with yourself.

There were many other angles discussed as well, in essence having change at core, but for now I think these deep highlights would suffice.

As usual, our group talks were lengthy, honest, interesting, enjoyable and balanced, leaving each of us with a very pleasant feeling of benevolent camaraderie.

Before I’m ending my brief update here, once again I would like to express my most sincere appreciation to those who honored my invitation.

Till we meet again, my best regards to all!

Alice

“Every end is a new beginning.”