Rhm is Where the Heart Is

Former Law & order actress elisabeth rhm is a womans healthcare advocate, red Cross volunteer, writer and mom.
By Rachel Sokol

Elisabeth Rhm loves serenity and being home. The actress, mommy, and healthcare advocate splits her time between New York and Los Angeles, but she knows how to channel her inner Dorothy Gale. Home is an essential part of your life, its important for me, and for my young daughter Easton, to have a peaceful environment at home, whether its in Los Angeles or New York, she explains. I love the security I have around me in New York, it is home. I can just hop on Amtrak or Metro North to escape. The native New Yorker calls the Empire State, the most beautiful but has come to really enjoy the West Coast. We are lucky we have that New York-slash-Los Angeles diversity in our lives, says Rhm, a Sarah Lawrence graduate with a degree in Writing and European History. The cheerful, forward-thinking Rhm actually describes herself as quiet to an extent. I like being surrounded by my inspirational quotes and pictures and artwork. My refrigerator and walls are covered with my daughters art, she says. I am a big advocated for doing crafts and art projects together and we do them all the

time. Rhms favorite quote is: When the going gets tough, do it anyway, from the poem, Do It Anyway. Its just a little gem I turn to, says the actress who starred as the spunky Assistant Attorney Serena Southerlyn on the popular NBC series Law & Order. I turn to that poem as a reminder to not take things so personally. Currently lming a series of movies such as Saras Cell and Blueglass Run, Rhm refers to her years on Law and Order as her rst big break. It was lmed in my hometown, after all. I felt like I was recruited by the Yankees, it was my dream come true, she recalls excitedly. It was also an intellectually stimulating show, which I liked. I also liked the consistent work of television. There is no real method to the madness, laughs Rhm when asked about balancing work with being a mom. (Eastons father is Rhms anc, Ron Wooster.) I try to really focus on whats in front of me. And I worry a LOT less now than I did in my 20s. Instead of worrying about when, where, what if, I remind myself that every career has its demands, she explains. My job may not be 9 to 5, but we can go away for a week or a monthI can play a

part, then be with Easton for a solid month, she says, pointing out a dierence between television and lm work. Motherhood, says Rhm, also taught her, to be present, to be forgivingand that its OK to not be perfect. Rhm, a voracious reader, loves the literature of DH Lawrence and Pat Conroyto name just a few. As a child, I fell in love with books and Easton loves books too. I read her books by Brian Andreas he writes childrens books with adult themes. One of Rhms other gems is the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, a book she has turned to since the loss of her mother, two years ago. I thought it was going to be a bunch of spiritual mumbo jumbo, but its absolutely not. Rhm, an only child, beautifully describes her mother as someone who, just loved me with every drop she hadshe was always so incredibly patient with me, recalls Rhm, whose mother passed away from a heart attack at age 60. Sadly, my daughter will never know my mom in body, but she will know her in spirit. She had a huge heart.
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