This is the true story of how I was inspired to create my very own line of green beauty products.

I didn’t mind turning 40. I had just gone through divorce, so I decided to have a “new life” party for myself. I was celebrating and having fun. But, turning 50 was a totally different experience for me.

At 50, I had just hit menopause and I wasn’t happy about it. This was a transition that I really didn’t look forward to. No more moon cycles, no more babies, just looking forward to sags, bags, wrinkles, getting old, gray hair, yikes!!!! I totally panicked, and all I could feel inside me was one big NO!

I was in total denial – this isn’t happening, I’m still young, I feel young, bla, bla, bla…

I was struggling to accept the unavoidable truth of the situation, but I didn’t do a very good job.

I was also going through another transition – the book business I had on amazon.com just died because everybody else had also started selling books.

My income was seriously dwindling, and the house I lived in was up for sale. So, basically everything was up in the air.

When the house sold, I decided that it was no longer fun to be self-employed. It was downright scary, and I started dreaming about having a regular paycheck.

My husband and I packed everything up and went to Eugene, Oregon. We tried to apply for regular jobs, and, what a joke that was…. My resume was a mile long with no references from anyone.

Since I had always been self-employed, it didn’t take long to realize that there were no job openings for me.

The realization that I was 50 and unemployable hit me in the face. I still had two kids to support, so now what? I was in total anguish, and I also hated Eugene. The traffic, the noise, the pollution, the bars on the windows and locks on the doors. After living in a small crime-less community in the mountains for over 20 years, city buzz did nothing for me. So, we ended up going back to where we came from.

This happened just before the annual music festival. As I walked around from booth to booth at the music festival, something caught my eye. It was a woman who was painting spirit pictures for people. I waited for my turn. When she asked me what I wanted her to paint, I told her about my menopausal anguish and asked her to paint something that could make the transition easier for me.

She picked a paper with a beautiful green blob painted on it, and started making a menopausal Goddess picture for me – a gorgeous woman with long, gray hair, and wrinkles, holding her hands up towards me, blessing me and welcoming me to the next stage in my life – menopause.

I loved the picture so much that I put it on my night stand so I could see it every morning. At the same time, I had decided that if I was unemployable, I just had to make the best out of it and draw from my own resources. Looking inside, I asked myself what I wanted to do, and was instantly inspired to create a line of green beauty products. I called it Green Beauty Cosmetics.

It wasn’t until two years later, when I woke up one morning and looked at my green Goddess picture, that I suddenly realized that SHE was Green Beauty! Not only had she welcomed me to menopause, but also inspired me to create my new business! And, I found myself in awe, realizing how it all came about, and how inspiration comes from the strangest places.