Lessons Learned From Holly

I don’t remember when I first met Holly Port. We were both at the Handcrafted Soap and Cosmetic Guild Conference in Miami in 2011, but I don’t know if that’s where we were introduced.  It just seemed I always knew her.  She was the owner of Lotion Bar Cafe in Colorado, authored the book “Make it Fizz” and was the sweetest person I knew.

And I can’t believe I’m using the past tense to talk about her.

Holly taught me many things by the way she lived. And by the way she died.

Lessons Learned from Holly

Love with all your heart, from the depth of your soul and don’t ever stop. Share that love, with friends and strangers. Tell everyone you love, that you love them, don’t assume they know. Love with no restrictions. Love, love, love. Then love some more.

Practice random acts of kindness. Make someone smile. Be the reason they smile.

Feel all your feelings big and deep. Cry ugly, hug hard and laugh loud.

Be silly, often. Laugh so hard you pee yourself.

Wake up at 4:30 am and go to the gym.

Coffee is the drink of the Gods. (See above)

Put a towel over your mixer when you make bath bombs. #makeitfizz

Never, NEVER eat cheap fish balls in Chinatown.

Love Jesus and never give up.

Fish Balls?

So the fish ball reference? Holly and a group of soap maker friends came to NYC and had a list of places they wanted to see. One of the things on the list was to eat in Chinatown.  Joe’s Shanghai was recommended by a friend of mine. We traveled around the city all day and by the time we get to Joe’s, we had an hour wait.  Holly was hungry, and next door to the restaurant was a small take-out place that had fish balls really cheap. I mean, like three-for-a-dollar cheap. (PS the take-out place is no longer in business.)

Someone bought them, someone else took a bite, someone spit it out and someone dropped the plate.  The fish balls bounced down the street. High. This sent Holly into fits of laughter. I believe we played with the bouncing fish balls while we waited. Holly couldn’t stop laughing.  Ever since then, all I had to do was say “fish balls” and she’d be cracking up.  That’s how I remember her.

Do you have a Holly memory to share? Or a lesson you learned from her?

Yours on Gratitude,

Angela