Go Boldly into Friday and Strut Your Stuff......

Stereotype me as "fabulous" if you must.....

taken from a line a saw on a t-shirt

I see it happening everywhere and I myself have be guilty of actually participating in it---you know what I'm talking about don't you---you know---trying to be like everybody else.

Something about peer pressure seems to invite us to hide who we really are.  We dress up in the latest fashion trend, change our hairstyle, buy the latest electronic gadget or car or "thing"--

all in hopes

that somebody

somewhere

will see us

and

think

we

are cool.

I was born a creative strange child.

I have always had an inquisitive mind and I've really never been afraid to ask the questions everyone else wants to know but thinks it is too uncool to ask.

I love to read, like tie dye fashion accessories.

The electrons of music synapsing takes my spirit to a whole new plain.

Many over the years has simply stated:

"She's weird"

For the longest time...

I felt ashamed of who i was...

I tried to hide my "differentness" or else I would flaunt it too flamboyantly--as in a you just watch me fashion.

Reflection on my life now brings me to the point where

I am finally comfortable in my own skin--

yes I am still very different

yes I still ask the questions that are hard and yes

it still rubs folks the wrong way---I'm just okay with that these days.

My honesty is hard to hear at times and my passion...

omg...

what trouble it can get me into....

but

I am who I am

that isn't going to change...

so

I am learning

more and more everyday

to

allow that wonderful color

to come to the surface...

the funny thing is...

seems folks are attracted to

those of us who

can stand amongst the penguins ...all lined up looking alike

and

strut our stuff...

stand pretty in pink on one leg.

I can promise

it is a hell of alot easier

living into who I am rather than

trying to

cram myself into the mold created for another.

So on this Friday...

fluff up your uniquest feathers...

spike up your hair in front...

stick a feather or two right in the center....

and

go ahead...

strut your stuff....

and

let the world

crave what you've got.

Remember---

We are fabulous...

so strut boldly little grasshopper!

Happy Friday and i don't know about you but...

TGIF

hugs.

"Beautification---it's way beyond the surface!"



taken at some point at time by my daughter---nice ride though don't you think?

We can put lots of things on the surface.

We can cover up lots of stuff.

We can pretend that the make-up and hair color will fix the hurt underneath...

We can cover ourselves with all kinds of stuff...

but at the end of the day...the things that we take to bed with us

are the things we don't cover up.

I went to my monthly beautification session today. 

 I've been seeing Becky now since I was a college junior. 

 She's been a constant peg in my life now for many years. 

 Becky is my beautification specialist.

We've been through dating,

 weight gain, weight loss, husbands, pregnancy,

 postpartum depression,children getting on our nerves 

and now we enter mid-life together (we just don't call it that yet). 

She's seen me at my best and she's seen me at my worst.

  She makes me laugh and she cries with me--she's the cheapest therapy I've ever had. 

 I love her free spirit and her authentic laugh.

We've experienced many styles together---the kinky perm, the soft twist, the new mom bob,

the pregnancy highlight which has now become the gray hide--truth be told

there was probably some type of mullet do in there somewhere

. It never has mattered how she has done my hair--if I am honest-- I have never been able to make it look like she does and I'm okay with that--for one day a month, I look really sexy hot--the rest of the time--just sexy hot.  I can live with that. 

Becky is my hair styler, cosmetology specialist and now we've moved on to

calling her "my beautification specialist." 

 She also has a variety of novelties for sale in her booth--

At Christmas it is red fingernail polish (and if you wait until July, you can get it really cheap),

certificates for training sessions from her husband,

occasionally a homeopathic oil that is good for cuts, pimples and other ailments like hangnails---

Today was the annual "get your girl scout cookie day".

I tease her constantly about the items in her "store".

Today was the day to mix up the gray, cut it off and talk.

One of the other folks in her shop has been off sick

 and so Becky has been doing some customers from that person for the last few months. 

 Most of them are older women, who often remind me of the "church lady" from Saturday night live.

  As I sat in the chair, Becky was collecting money from the "church lady" who went before me. 

She was short, slim and gray with a simple cut. 

Becky was feeding her a girl scout cookie sample

 and helping her make her selection to buy and take home.

  I sat and watched and enjoyed.

As they finished their transaction, Becky reached over and gave her a big hug. 

 It was very moving to watch

--it wasn't one of those little fake push away hugs or pat on the back hugs---

but a real wrap your arms around mean it kind of hug.

She walked the lady over and said good-bye and started with me.

I looked at her and asked, "Do you always hug your customers?

" 'cause she always hugs me when i leave-(now I know I'm not the only one)

she looked at me and said, "yeah, if they let me--some folks will push you away."

I asked, "Why?"

she just said, "because".

I said, "no really Becky why do you hug them."

She simply smiled and said, " cause I love them."

She continued with my beautification and as the day went on--

I began to reflect upon her action of hugging.

We all look for things to make ourselves feel better.

We pay lots of money on make-up and clothes and hairstyles.

Truth is sometimes the things we need most,

like a smile, or good conversation or a hug of love are free.

As I sat there, I came to realize that Becky's action

 with the "church lady" probably did a much better job

 at beautifying the woman than the haircut.

  Her touch of love went way beyond the surface

 and hit the heart of her 'beautification calling' in life.

As I age, I realize we don't need all that crap we stick on our surface.

All we need is a good friend who makes us laugh,

a smile,

a touch,

and an occasional therapy session with a good beautification specialist.

What we tend to forget is we are

all "beautification specialists".

May we,

like Becky

open up our shops,

pull up a chair for folks,

give them a smile,

a listening ear,

and reach out and hug them......

.that kind of stuff.....goes way beyond the surface stuff.

So for today,

I am thankful for a really sexy hot hairdo day,

a beautification specialist who is also a friend

and

a moment of watching a tender touch.

May we all like my "specialist" Becky seek to find the stuff underneath the surface

--for that is where our real beauty lies.





"who lives in a purple house?"

Just as promised--here is the picture of the purple house--

now will the owner please raise their hand?

Choosing the road Less Traveled
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood
and sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
and looked down one as far as I could
to where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
and having perhaps the better claim
because it was grassy and wanted wear;
though as for that, the passing there
had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
in leaves no feet had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I --
I took the one less travelled by,
and that has made all the difference

Robert Frost



My daughter and I have a horrible sense of direction.  If there are two roads to take, you'd better believe that both of us would choose the road less traveled simply because most of the time we are so caught up in the visual scenery that we most often miss even seeing the road that everyone else takes.  Yesterday we decided to have a girls day and drove out of town to visit an art museum.   We did our traveling prep and printed out a map quest but just as we were beginning to think we were going to have no problems......there were were "Lost".   We have no internal GPS and so what should have taken us ninety minutes to drive ended up taking 180 minutes.  Funny thing is, we didn't get upset, didn't get stressed and really enjoyed our time being lost.  Let's just say, we created lots and lots of memories.

Our first stop during our lost time was way off the beaten path at a small convenience store in the middle of somewhere but I still couldn't tell you where we were.  I got out and went in and asked for directions-of course they told me to turn around and go back the way I just came.  I went to the van and we started to pull out when suddenly from across the road was the brightest paint job on a house that I've ever seen.

I immediately put the breaks on and my daughter said, "What are you doing?"

I replied, "look at that house!  Who lives in a purple house?????"   I had to stop, go back in the store, buy batteries and then stop and go back in because I bought the wrong size--I'm sure the lady behind the cash register thought that I was the "crazy customer that would not go away."   I took a picture of the purple house and have thought alot about what kind of person lives there---I must say, the story I've made up makes me a bit jealous of him/her.  Truth is--I'd love to be free enough of everything--- "what others think and what the expectations of the world are"----- to throw a rainbow of colors on the outside of my house and dare the world to look.  I would bet the person who lives there is creative, must be fully birthed into their authentic creation.   I wonder what the inside looks like?  eclectic, artistic, crazy.  I wonder if the person is a writer, a painter?  I am almost certain--I'd love being around.  I'd love to sit on the front porch with a glass of iced lemon aid, eat some chocolate chip cookies just out of the oven and share in some conversation about the mystery of the world.  I'd really like to meet that person.....underneath all this rambling today---perhaps, I'd really like to be comfortable enough in my own skin to live in my own purple house and be proud.

I am thankful for day with my daughter, laughing and talking in the car, for taking the road less taken and being lost but found and for the wonder of seeing a purple house.  Whoever this person is, whatever they do, whatever reason they painted the house purple----well let's just say, they have invited me to look at the hidden boundaries that keep me from the freedom of authentic living.  

two roads diverged and I'm glad I took the one less taken, for if not,

I'd never have seen a purple house.
Someday, I hope I'm free of all the "things" that hold me back,
all the "things" that keep me boxed in,
someday, when I'm birthed fully into my authentic self.....
maybe...if I'm lucky...I too will be the proud owner
of a purple house.