Month: July 2018

 

In the middle of almost each season I get in a funk with what to wear. I look in my closet wishing a clothing elf would come in the night to bring new clothes. i end up pushing back the clothes with no idea what to put on. Taking a little longer to get dressed.  In the winter I get sick of layers and in summer I get tired of the lack of them. Even in spring I look forward to shorts or my summer dresses but in the Autumn I never have that problem. I get to wear snuggly clothing without having to add layers to them, each out fit in this great season I look forward to wearing.

As you can guess I am in that funk now, today I was so sick of my summer clothes. I don’t have many and even when I had a larger closet I still got sick of them.  I know this happens when I am ready to move on to the next season. I don’t give the same amount of care as when the season first starts. Maybe its just the heat but I also haven’t had the same spring in my step as I did when summer began and I was sporting my “new’ summer dress.

I was thinking we (myself included) have this same problem when it comes to how we treat others. We can start off with being kind and loving even looking forward to being nice, then grow tired. It does take work and just like how I get sick of my clothes but I still need to get dressed anyway. We all have some form of interaction with eachother so why not just be kind? Since we all live on this great planet maybe giving more care on how we treat others would be a great start.  I love how Gandhi said it “If you want to change the world, start with yourself.”

I will start with me by dressing for autumn each day because I see such a change on the mornings when I decide to wear kindness, it never goes out of fashion and I have a spring back in my step even with the heat.

As we get dressed each day and we decided what to wear for our bodies we also can decide to clothe our selves with “compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and a huge one for me patience.

 

Colossians 3:12-14

12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

 

I like the quote that Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher said “change is the only constant in life.”. I have fully embraced this thought with a lot of my life, especially with my hair. I have never been one to keep the same haircut or style for long. I may come back to some favorite ones but only after several others have been tried. In fact I have a cycle of sorts, I have it long then get it chopped off every few years.

Who knows why I do this, after a cut/style that doesn’t seem to work I’ll complain briefly, grow it out and try another style, My poor loved ones. After months of sending hair cuts to a few of my very close family/friends I decide on one of them sent off the Pinterest picture and said I was going for it, they weren’t to surprised only supportive.

Armed with a picture of a lovely feminine shag pixie I went to a salon that takes walk-ins and just my luck I get taken back without waiting. I show the women my picture and she seems to understand what I want, so I sit back and enjoy myself. I see that after she takes off my long ponytail she goes for the front but is going for the cut that would be a lot shorter than what I was thinking, I ask her about it but she assures me she understands what I want and everything will be fine.

Everything was not fine, at the end I look to see that my hair was anything but a feminine shag! I looked in horror,  I didn’t hold back. I became a very BOLD out spoken women. In short I didn’t pay full price. I believe that everyone in the salon knew I was not happy, I could hear the intake of breaths as I spoke. I left wanting to cry, not wanting to be seen again or for at least for 6-8 weeks. I sat in my car for a few moments fuming then had the thought that I would color my hair because that would help, right?

No, coloring my hair didn’t help and for most of Saturday I acted like a spoiled child.

As I woke and had my prayer a wave of remorse came over me, I felt awful for how I acted. I couldn’t believe I was so wrapped up in my hair that I felt I wasn’t me any more, it only reminded me of all the many changes and how I feel I am not being heard and how I am not where I thought I would be at this stage in my life.

I never thought that my marriage would have turned out the way it did, but my life became better.

I never thought I would lose a child between my daughter and son, but instead I have two wonderful children who are now young adults who I had the pleasure seeing grow.

My list could go on with how things don’t go according to plan or how I would want them but that same list would also show how things went even better than planned.

God worked on my heart that morning. I have been going through so many changes in my life as of late and some have been ones I never saw coming. I realized that just like my hair I didn’t get what I wanted but that’s ok, I still got a change and a lot cooler hair style for this very hot summer, it will grow back but healthier and better.

 

 

When my daughter lived at home we  liked to watch the show “What Not to Wear” . We would laugh at some of it, almost cry at other times but for the most part we thoroughly enjoyed seeing people transformed to s better version of themselves.

I always felt I could have been a great candidate for the show. Fashion has never been my talent but I do like it, maybe that’s why when watching the show I felt better knowing I wasn’t the only one walking around looking like a hot mess.

 

Some of the people on the show would go along with all the adjustments enjoying the guidance and fully embrace the change. Others would get upset and not trust the process, they would argue and insist their way was better until one of the experts would point out that their friends/family did get them on the show. They would then allow their clothing to be put in a trash can. Then off they would go with the experts to shop for clothing that would complement the body parts that should be shown and hide the problem areas. They would be shown how to apply make up and get a great hair cut/style that brought out their best features. At the end they would walk a little taller and keep their head a little higher. After they saw their new reflection they would not believe it was them.

 

I would like to think I would go along happily but if I think about it, in life I can be hardheaded, stubborn and think I know what is best. I tend to think that the master designer needs some guidance on how things should be. I can hold on to things that should be tossed, not wanting the new.

Change can be so scary. Clearing out the old and embracing the new can be so terrifying that we might need time to say good-by. We might need time to mourn so that when those tears are dry are faces can be cleaned and makeup applied showing our best features. If we leave our life in the hands of the expert it can happen. We can be that better version of our self that God always new was there. He just needed us to let go and cooperate.

Isaiah 43:18-19

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. 19 See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”

Psalm 139:13-14

“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”