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May 6 – Sweet and Sassy Birthday Girl of the Day: Helen Koopman

Posted on May 5, 2007 in the Real Beauty category

Yes, it’s another Sweet and Sassy Birthday – I’d like to introduce you to one of my godmothers – I’m luckier than Cinderella – I have two!

Here’s a link to the famous — Real Beauty Book Overview — enjoy! (it’s at the bottom, too)

Now to the good stuff……

Helen is beautiful because she is….INTERESTED in other people. Helen is one of my godmothers. I’m pretty lucky, I have two godmothers. My husband and I just visited her and my other godmother, Jackie (you’ll meet her October) in Portland recently. They have been all over the world – every continent and I think over 70 countries. They’ve seen all kinds of important places and met many different people. Yet, whenever we see Helen (never enough), she always asks us lots of questions and really listens to our answers.

Helen never gets tired of talking and exchanging ideas. It’s okay if you don’t agree with her. She still wants to know what you think. We sit around and chat for hours. And it’s never boring or confrontational. It’s just enjoyable. She’s a retired teacher so I can understand why she is a curious person. But she never seems to lose her wonder at learning new things.

I don’t remember a time in my life when Helen wasn’t there. Even though Jackie is my cousin, Helen has always been part of the family, too. She loves family. She has a huge family of her own – lots of nieces and nephews. They live near – and they are very lucky. I’ve met the family several times (all very nice!) and they are very protective of Helen and Jackie. I can tell the family loves them a lot – and who wouldn’t? Helen has a lot of love and wisdom to share. But she is not preachy. She is just happy talking and sharing.

Even though she’s been around the world, I think she is happy to be in Portland. And she likes to share her love of traveling with others. Helen and Jackie have invited family members to join them on their travels and passed the traveling bug on to them. And it’s not just the desire to jet set and check countries off a list – they meet children and visit schools. I think these experiences have shaped Helen and Jackie into compassionate, loving and conscious women – and also the coolest cats I’ve ever met.

There’s just something so hip about Helen that I love to spend hours talking to her. I can’t detect a bad bone in her body. She and Jackie are a good example of going with the flow. I think with all they’ve seen – thousands of years of history, glorious structures, nature in every form, people from all walks of life, children all around the world – a lot of problems may seem like small stuff.

Happy Birthday, Helen – you are an important part of my family and I love you a lot!

Real Beauty Book Overview

Comments

One Response to “May 6 – Sweet and Sassy Birthday Girl of the Day: Helen Koopman”

  1. Helen Koopman on May 8th, 2007 2:05 pm

    Thanks so much for your very kind words.

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