Monday, July 21, 2014

Freedom


I have naturally curly hair. Your response will be, "Oh, you're so lucky!" Mine will be an inward groan. It's the age-old story. We're never happy with what we have.

However, you must understand. I attended high school in the sixties. Curls were not "in." The flip was "in." Long straight hair was "in." Curls, as I said, were not.

I longed for straight hair and did everything in my power to get it. I slept on rollers the size of orange juice cans. By so doing, I was able to achieve a shoulder-length flip - which lasted all of about thirty minutes. The second I hit even the tiniest amount of humidity, my flip curled up to my ears like huge sausages.

Then I tried ironing my hair - always a tad risky. The ironer had to be very careful lest my whole head of hair go up in smoke.

When I discovered straightener, I thought I finally found the secret to straight hair. Alas, it wasn't all it was cracked up to be.

So here I am - nearly fifty years later still wielding a blow drier and flat iron (And can I just say, if they had these in the sixties I would have been in heaven?); still avoiding any form of precipitation like the plague lest it cause my carefully straightened coif to curl.

A few weeks ago I had an epiphany. I put away all the straightening implements and boldly declared I was going to let my hair do whatever it wanted to. If you're thinking it suddenly lost all desire to curl in the face of such a declaration, you would be wrong. It persisted in its curly ways. But this time I washed it, fluffed it up with my fingers and walked away from the mirror.

Oh the freedom! I fearlessly face humidity. It has no power over me now. My hair is already as curly as it can be. And rain? No problem. I can even wash my hair five minutes before I have to go out, and it doesn't matter. I am no longer tied to wires and artificial heat.

Sunday morning I sat on the front porch soaking in the beauty and peace of this place. Thankfully there was a nice breeze, because the heat and humidity were a bit high. I thought about my hair "saga" and felt so happy to be sitting there without a baseball cap on to keep my hair from curling.

And the Lord whispered a little something to my heart. "See," He said. "Isn't it better to be the you I created you to be? When you try so hard to be something or someone you aren't, it makes Me sad. I made you according to my plan - precious, unique and loved. Contentment will come when you rest in that knowledge. Don't try so hard to be like everyone else.

Besides, I like curls."


Blessings,
Linda