The fourth line for the fourth month.
I like the first part of this line, but the latter scares me as much as the latter part of my own body does--the implications and truths are getting too big to handle.
I am ready to take my first step toward worthiness. I am finally going to admit who I truly am. I am so sick of hiding it--the time it takes, the societal pressure to conform, the longing to fit in, the desire to continue to live in denial... These naggers have all kept me from being who I was designed to be.
Here it is folks. I confess:
I am grey.
And. I've decided to let out my roots (which are 99.9% grey) and start a college fund for my boys with all the money I'll save on my colorist. I don't mind the look of it. Yet. The reactions I get from people are fascinating. Many react as if I've decided to get fat.
They won't admit judgment, but the disapproval and fear that registers on their faces is as unmistakable as a naked person running through a restaurant.
But. Grey is sometimes a sign of worthiness. My father always claimed that his white hair was "a crown of glory" as it says in Proverbs 16:31, or beautiful, also from Proverbs: "the beauty of old men is their grey hair" but wait, that seems to apply to men. Damn double standard again.
I do like this verse though: "Even to your greying years I will bear you; I have done it, and I will carry you; and I will bear you and I will deliver you" Isaiah 46:4.
Perhaps I can buy some wisdom by not dying my hair any longer. Perhaps people will think, "wow, that old woman must know some stuff" or "Damn, that hot grey-haired old lady must have some tough kids," another thing my father often blamed his white head on.
As if I can earn respectability by an appearance that defies the common.
Yet. No doubt I will lose the throng of 20-something-year-old boys that hit on me while I'm at the bar. Wait. That only happens about once a year when I actually attend a bar, which rarely occurs by choice. And it happens only when I'm out with other women my age and mistaken for a cougar. So I think I'll survive. Even though, honestly, it is a bit flattering.
And let me be completely honest: I've been overcompensating for my flaw-filled skin with my long mane. And allowing it to cover up my back acne (thank you, genes!) so that I could once again wear strapless dresses. The hair draws attention. And, I'm not going to lie: Sometimes I love said attention. That clearly does not make me worthy, it only makes me enviable, if only to women that have no hair... but it also makes me a ridiculous, narcissistic ego-maniac. And I don't want to be that. Or even remotely resemble it.
Picture: Month ONE. I know, you can barely notice the grey roots peaking around my temples. And my hairstylist's answer for a slightly less drastic transition period: make me even blonder. So yes, folks, you can witness right here: me going from blond to white in the next year. I promise to post a pic each month and tell you about the transition and new reality. I even promise to post the forthcoming comments. That is, if I can hack it.
Truly, this decision is in line with many other decisions I've made of late: To allow the natural be revealed, to be who I was designed to be, to cut the extras and the excess that all too often inhibit my true spiritual growth, to stop hiding behind a mask... Yet, to do all of this in a very real physical sense is as challenging as the unseen ways. In some ways more.
So. My new blog titles might even be chosen from the following:
Kimberly The White
Kim The Grey of Canada
Canada's Kimberly the White
The Chronicles of Kimberly The White of Canada
Any other suggestions?
No comments:
Post a Comment