The Glow of Amber

Amber is a brave soul. She embarks on everything she does with a sense of wonder, her big eyes mirrored in the amber-colored beads around her neck.

"Someone accused me of being meta," she said, fingering the plastic baubble version of her beautiful name.

I smiled. "You are meta..."

Amber is meta-cool, meta-real, meta-hard-working. Maybe I am a bit biased. She interviewed me a while back on her great show, "Hey Brooklyn," http://heybrooklyn.com/282/stephanie-thompson-gold-star-for-trying/ a podcast from which she is currently taking a hiatus to focus on her new photography biz. You can find her now at http://www.ambermarlow.com/.

I am awe-struck by Amber's maturity and forthrightness. I hope I was as fearless and bold at 28, though I look back and don't believe I was. I did more the prescribed things, the things I thought I should or needed to rather than following my gut and just going for it, as Amber does.

It is not easy, making up one's own rules. There is no No-Rules book, unfortunately. You must write your own every day anew, as Amber is doing, try new things all the time, not because you are NOT afraid, but because you are and need to best those silly fears.

"I want to go rock-climbing," she said to me as we lunched together yesterday at S'Nice, leaning forward in her characteristic enthusiastic way, all aglow with excitement.

I gave Amber Marlow Blatt a big gold star for all her efforts, professional and personal. She held it up proudly, as well she should. She deserves a big reward.