Ooooh, She's Sassy!

In a word: Sticky

Sometimes, when Life hands you lemons, the best thing to do is to sqeeze all the juice out, make a fresh glass of slightly sour lemonade, throw it in Life's face, and walk away.

Well friends, today I started sqeezing.  I chatted for a while with a friend who advised me to make an action plan of things I'd like to change in my life.  I'm on it, but can't share it.  You never know who's reading (especially because nobody leaves freakin' comments.  Helloooo?)! 

In my world, a dramatic hair chop usually accompanies an equally dramatic life change.  But, I'm really enjoying long hair, especially since my straightening iron and I are having a genuine love affair.  And, my houndstooth fedora looks sasstastic with long hair.  This time, I took a different route.  No short hair needed this time.

Instead of extricating myself from the shackles of long hair, I'm ridding myself of my posessions.  How badly did I really need to keep 20 terra cotta pots?  Not that badly, as I hadn't used them since we moved here.  In 2005.  Gone.  Did I really need to hang on to a box of bike equipment that, even when I was riding, I never used?  Au revoir!  Paring down my posessions feels just as liberating as cutting my hair, and it's much more productive (and lucrative!).  I enjoy eliminating ugly things that people give me, or my kids, that I've kept out of guilt.  

I've found that I like getting rid of stuff.  The notion of owning fewer things lures me because I believe less on the outside leaves more room on the inside.  Giving away things, and selling things, makes room for my spirit to grow.  I feel empowered every time I put something of mine into someone else's hands, as if to say to them, "This is not something I need any more.  You want this more than I need it."  Additionally, I am not replacing these things with anything else.  They are extra physical things that will not hamper me, weight me, contain me, any more.  They are things that have exhausted their use.  I am past them.  I've grown beyond them.  When they are gone, they leave space, both physical and mental.  Giving them away acknowledges that growth.

This is how I've started making my lemonade.  Just as slicing a lemon and squeezing enough juice for a full glass of lemonade involves a little agression and a lot of will, so it will be with the next steps I take.  Life handed me a bucket of lemons.  I'm going to make something delicious and throw it right back.