As my kids sat at the local pool eating their dinner in the picnic area, this woman at another table kept eyeing me. She had a smile on her face so I smiled back but I was pretty darned sure I’d never seen her in my life.
…I just reread that opening line and it sounds a bit like the beginning of a sleezy porn, and this story is anything but, so please bear with me.
As we finished up dinner, she walked over to me and said that she was pretty sure we went to high school or college together. We did. She was two grades behind me in High School.
“I just have to tell you,” she began “that we didn’t know each other, I just remember your face and that you are really spirited and funky, and it made me so happy to see that with your pink hair and colorful outfit, you still are.”
I was speechless. I almost wanted to cry. I probably should have hugged her. I told her she had no idea how much it meant to hear that. That I didn’t spend the last 20 years being all “spirited and funky.” That my spirit and funkiness – my creative and personal confidence -AKA: My Muchness- went on hiatus for many, many years in the middle there and I am on a journey to get them back.
I believe that everyone is put down onto this earth with a purpose. The majority of people who agree with that statement go through life searching for theirs. I believe, at our core, stripped away from all the judgement and perceived social appropriateness and various levels of insecurity, we are already so much more aware of what we’re here to do and be than we allow ourselves to acknowledge or see. We slowly, over days and weeks and months and years, lose sight of the things that draw us closer to ourselves, our strengths and joys.
For me, reconnecting on a surface level with my “spirit and funkiness” has drawn me a lot closer to my purpose and the reason I was put on this planet.
Me—-> at the pool. 🙂
