I sit here in Starbucks and I am content. I’ve got my grande, blonde roast coffee, my cheese and fruit bistro box, my journal and my ipad. Jazz is gently playing in the background and I hear the 2 happy barista merrily preparing client lattes and frappuccinos. Life in this moment is good.
Moments like these fulfill me. Sometimes, in my crazy life, I am forced to sit down and take it in and I am grateful because otherwise, I would miss it. My ipad is out of juice, it’s an hour until my next appointment and I have nothing to do but wait.
Waiting for me is not a time waster or a means to an end (usually). It is a gift. I heard my husband tell my boys the other day, that he didn’t enjoy amusement parks because he hated waiting in lines. I had to ponder that because I have always love amusement parks. It never occurred to me how much time I spent in lines. As I thought, I realized some of the best parts of the day were spent in lines. I remember great conversations and laughter. I remember making new friends and meeting new people. Sometimes, I got to see cool things because I was in one place for an extended period of time. Things like witnessing a proposal or watching a baby bird take its first flight (believe it or not, this can be possible in parks in Southwestern Ontario). I’ve found my next hair style or shoes that I would need to scope out. Other times, I just stared off into space, reflecting on the day or letting my thoughts just settle; recharging my batteries. Never did I hate waiting in line. I was grateful. Grateful for the opportunity to slow down and be present.
I know how easy it is to find fault in things. I’ve been prone to it throughout my life. Looking for beauty in the face of a beast, however, has been a practice that has helped in my pursuit of meaningful life. Seeing the gifts that waiting can provide makes one much more content than focusing on the aggravation of loosing time. Especially when the end can be a thrill no matter how short.
I am a lover of Red Wine. I would say it was an acquired taste and now I salivate at the mere mention of the flavourful liquid. My first revelation came after a wine tasting lesson at a Niagara winery. They paired one of their Merlot’s with chocolate covered strawberries. They taught me to swirl the wine, sniff it and tip it to see the “legs”. Then we sipped it and sucked in air to get the full body flavour. We did it again after we took a bite of our strawberry. I had never before experienced either wine or strawberries like that before. It was devine.
For years after that, I was a devoted merlot sipper. I tried anything labelled as such, ignoring all other varieties. I wasn’t sure I could like anything as much as “my” merlot. But I was wrong. A friend recommended I try a Valpolicella once. Reluctantly, I obliged and to my pleasant surprise, I LOVED it!!! It opened me up to trying other varieties. Now I add Shiraz and Cabernet-Savignon to my list of “Likes”.
My most recent red wine adventure had me trying a South African Red called “Porcupine Ridge”. It went down like smooth velvet. Rich, aromatic and delicious. Next to Masi, Valpolicella, it was my new favourite. If you are a red wine drinker who favours merlots and valpols, check this out. I doubt you’ll be disappointed.
I am a ginger. As a child, I was often subject to bullying and name-calling because of my red hair and needless to say, I came to learn to hate my hair from a very early age.
I refused to accept that any of the traits commonly associated with red-heads were true. When people asked if I had the temper that went with the hair colour, I would crossly inform them that that was a myth and that if a person with red hair had a temper it was because that was his/her personality. I would lather myself with tanning oil and lay out in the sun to get a tan. I hated it when people told me that red-headed persons were fair-skinned and therefore would burn in the sun and not tan. I wouldn’t believe it. I’m not sure how many sun burns it was before I started to accept the truth in that. When I was about 6, I started to get freckles on my nose. I wasn’t having that. I would sit in front of the mirror and try to scratch them off. I ended up with a few lovely scabs doing that. Defeated the purpose of trying the get rid of the dreadful freckles <insert sarcasm here> because scabs on my face looked so much better.
One of the notion’s I did tend to believe, as horrible as this may sound, was that redheads were ugly. When I was 13, I had a crazy crush on this one particular boy in my class. I thought at the time he was the gravy to my mashed potatoes. So you can imagine how thrilled I was when he made eye contact from across the classroom and motioned for me to come over to his desk. Like the silly school girl that I was, I rushed over to him and you know what he said to me? He said, “You know you are never going to get married. You have red hair and guys don’t like girls with red hair”. OUCH!!!! That was the clincher for me. Up until that point, having red hair was an inconvenience. With those words, it became a curse.
As soon as I was old enough, probably around 16, I started highlighting my hair. I wasn’t comfortable going for a complete hair colour change but I would put in the blondest highlights I could manage. That’s what I carried on doing up until about 3 years ago. That’s when a little red-headed girl from my church got up to give a speech that won her the county-wide speech competition. It was on red heads. And she talked about the things that were “cool” about being a red head.
What I learned from that little red-headed girl:
1. Only 1 to 2% of the WORLD’S population has red hair – so we are unique
2. Redheads don’t go grey. They go blonde and eventually white. Nice!
3. Individuals with red hair have a higher pain tolerance so we’re tougher. That’s right.
Although I learned a lot of “cool stuff” about redheads what was more important to me was how this little girl was viewing herself. Here she was embracing what Nature had given her. She wasn’t denying it, she was celebrating it. I could do that. I should do that I thought. I willdo that.
First, I stopped highlighting my hair. What was my hair colour anyway? It had been blonde for so many years, I didn’t know what shade of red it would be. At that point, I wasn’t even sure if it might just be that blonde she said that comes in before white. Turns out it’s very coppery with some white hairs peppered throughout. And you know what? I do have a temper. Ask my husband and my kids.. With that temper though, also comes that passion she spoke of. That is something I definitely embrace. I don’t just like things, I LOVE them. It fires me up. It helps me to motivate others. It allows me to feel and to feel with all my heart.
My freckles have faded. If I want to see them I just need to go out in the sun. I don’t tan but I’ve learned to live with that. In fact, the freckles are my tan. When I’m in the sun, the freckles come out and that’s what gives me the red-headed “ruddy complexion”. I am careful in the sun though and because of that, I’m not aging as quickly (of course I’ve already done damage from my years of red headed denial).
And to that boy who said those mean and hurtful words back in the 8th grade. Jokes on you buddy. How many of the most beautiful people in Hollywood are redheads? Nicole Kidman, Jessica Chastain, Julianne Moore, Emma Stone and of the male persuasion, Damien Lewis or Sam Hueghan – the latest red-haired heart throb from Outlander (although he’s naturally blonde). I’d love to see what colour that boy’s hair is now … if he has any.
Do you have traits that you once wish you didn’t have that you can now embrace?
I live with depression. I choose not to say “suffering” or “battling” because I also believe in the Law of Attraction and I work VERY hard to manifest positive outcomes in my life. It doesn’t own or control me but there are things that I need to do to live fully despite it.
I chose to post about this because I want people to know. I want to be a resource for others who also live with depression. Our world has created such a stigma around mental health that many try to hide their condition or ignore it and pretend nothing is going on. They live in a shadow and assume that is just how it is. It’s time to start talking and change this perception. One in 10 Canadians will experience a major episode of depression at least once in their lifetime. Many will do nothing and truly suffer. No need. There is help and if we can change this global misconception that depression is just in “someone’s head” and is shameful, what a better world it will be for EVERYONE. A great place to start is DepressionHurts.ca.
I love to daydream and journal. What a wonderful thing, blogging, where you can capture your thoughts or dreams and share them with others. I have to say though, I’ve been spending a lot of time researching how to take blogging more seriously and serious it’s getting. My head is starting to hurt. What’s my platform? What kind of plug-ins am I going to use? I should pay attention to the colours I use when designing my blog. Oh no! I didn’t even design my blog. Does it attract readers? Is this business or pleasure? Suddenly, all these thoughts and information is becoming overwhelming. My head is spinning.
I have thought over and over again that I need to start a “lifestyle blog” for so many reasons. Many of which I probably won’t get to in this post or else you are going to get bored and that will be it; you’ll stop right here on Post #1. For starters though, the more I learn about myself, my life and my family history, the more I realize how important it is to share in order to inspire, to connect and to help others. More to come in future posts.
The Ginger Genie 