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By Elizabeth Hamilton-Guarino
This month we have the pleasure of featuring Actress and Best Ever You follower as well as New Hampshire resident, Rae Dawn Chong.
As the daughter of actor Tommy Chong (of Cheech & Chong fame), and a renown actress herself, Rae Dawn Chong is completely down to earth and approachable. We got to dig a bit deeper than most into her world and we thank her for taking time to write about herself exclusively for Best Ever You.
Rae Dawn Chong
Here is her story ...
Height: 5' 8"
Favorite Place to eat in New Hampshire: My house.
Favorite jeans: I don't have a fave...I hate shopping.
Best Face Cream: Dr. Haushka rose cream.
Favorite mascara: Mabelline.
Favorite quote: "If you eat less you eat less" by Dr Wang.
On being divorced: Superb idea happily single.
On being single: I am in a relationship but I did spend 7 years single and I completely enjoyed it until the last 6 mos when It seemed exactly right, it was clear that it was time for me to manifest Nathan and I did.
Favorite shoes: My new hiking boots by Keen.
Kind of shampoo and conditioner: Pantene conditioner. I try not to shampoo my air more then once a week. It gets conditioned every day. Everyday I wet it because it is the only time I put a comb through it, in the shower.
Keep in shape by: Cathe Freidich DVDs Tro Jacobson DVDs I spin (I have a spinning bike) and I play tennis. I am a big fan of weights. I read Oxygen magazine and everything written about fitness. I would like to be fitter then I am and am hoping to be in the best shape ever by fifty!
What are you terrible at: Everything, always middle of the pack!! It inspires me to be better. I can't bake.
What is you overall best quality: Charisma and my willingness to process and share it!
Favorite ice cream: Double churn bars and grape popsicles.
On winter: Love it outside as much as possible big on all snow sports.
Best friend: Nathan, Chris , Michelle and Aggie and Adriana, Andrea. Also - My Dogs
Delightfully Human by Rae Dawn Chong
Trying times are here (or so they keep telling us) we are blessed to have places like this site to get support, to feel loved and a little less alone. I was speaking with my best friend Chris Burton who is in Los Angeles and who has had a very challenging year himself, we are in awe of the drama of the current times and we are also very grateful.
You ask what for?
For the positive changes stress and economic strain brings. Hardship if we are lucky forces us to reevaluate our values and it gives us a gift, it leads us back to ourselves. We are not able to numb out and do retail therapy as easily. We are forced to come home to ourselves. I love that!
Personally, I have not had a serious job for years. The last big pay checks I had been in 2004. It has been 4 years. My family and friends have been carrying me which I have to admit isn't easy and yet it has been wonderful. Before this long break I was always IT, I was the one who had to work and did.
It was my responsibility to earn a living for most of my life. I have been supporting myself since I was 15 years old. That is a long time, today I am 47. So when I stopped working, not by my choice really, it just has naturally happened. It was a shock at first and I struggled and I must say I judged myself. Something inside woke up and it said “be here in this, stop moving, and be carried for a spell”.
I could have forced a different outcome and I think I am still in wonder about what is ahead. I am still able to act although I haven't really had a big acting job in years. I am now spending a lot of time away from Los Angeles, Hollywood so how am I expecting to be viable? I don't know. My phone rings occasionally with auditions, scripts appear, people are still on record as my agents etc... Still, I am not missing any of it. I am enjoying the fall colors of my newly adopted home, New Hampshire. I adore the lack of traffic where I live. I love that we get to visit farms for our fresh vegetables and fruits. I walk my dogs in forests alone with nature, its breathtaking beauty, everyday, all year long. At home I get to play on the web and share and have virtual community. So in a sense I am connected. I still speak to many friends I have met from all over the planet via face book for instance.
So who needs to be in Hollywood?
Delightfully human, it is a gift to be in our own skin happily. I have discovered that I am loved, that I can share that love through words. My lack of making a living, working, has opened up a new career, writing. It has also helped me to feel the love and loyalty of my friends and family. This is vitally important since most of my life I had never slowed down enough, to allow myself to be carried this way. So I recommend it for those who are suspicious of being supported. It is healing. Still I am anxious to start working again on a regular basis. I am looking forward to carrying my family and friends for a long while. I have enjoyed the “break” I have had. It has helped me to discover me. Oh I know that sounds corny, forgive me. We need to feel loved; it is a human need, natural. These may be trying times because it isn't how we have been living in our recent past. I know that life is hardest if change isn't a naturally accepted part of it, change being a constant. Still it is a huge opportunity one we shouldn't squander by trying to maintain status quo. No, we should embrace simplicity and community. We should welcome the new ways of being, like closet shopping. Going into our very own closets and finding treasures, clothes we have neglected that will look fabulous on us today, now. So the new paradigm starts now. Welcome eating in and or pot lucking more, carpooling and the best one of all, staying home.
Times may be hard and we may be in an economic meltdown. Yet I think it is a grand opportunity to crack the inner landscape to find ourselves in the BIG way, to reevaluate what is important.
To truly prosper by being delightful in our humanity, I'm in!
"Delightfully human, it is a gift to be in our own skin happily."