TA-DA! Tuesday #10

Another Tuesday...what's your TA-DA! today? Today my biggest TA-DA! is: my bed is made!

(chuckling to myself how insignificant that MUST sound) Really, that is absolutely a TA-DA! for me. Living alone 90% of the time I hardly EVER 'make' the bed except after laundering and laying on fresh linens. Otherwise it seems a total waste of energy and time to me. I've found though since having rearranged my bedroom furniture to put my desk/office in the room it's become more of a 'living space' than before. Not to mention the bed is now in the center of the room instead of against the farthest wall from the door and now I SEE it when I pass the door. And it's ever so much lovelier made than not.

However, more meaningful to me today than a TA-DA! is an AHA! moment I had while chatting with a dear friend last night online. We were talking a bit about the struggle it sometimes is to get to be your true self amongst all the 'editors' in our lives - husbands, parents, siblings, children, teachers, church people, etc. all have an image of us tied to THEIR image of their selves that we're expected and often DEMANDED to reflect to properly reflect and enhance their own. Consequently, should we fail to perfectly fulfill those expectations we become inadequate in the eyes of others and often our own as well. They want to cut and paste and delete and insert so much of 'us' that we end up feeling like an accident casualty. We spend so much time exposed to cuts and abrasions in the exposed skin of our souls we end up feeling like I remember my younger sister looking after a motorcycle accident several years ago - raw with road rash and chunky with gravel and stone embedded in the skin on the entire backside of her legs and butt...or even worse, road kill. As I was chatting with my friend, attempting to be encouraging, it hit me - often when we feel that way we are not just so much 'road kill' but rather like the creations of a 1st class gourmet chef...rack of lamb, prime rib or filet mignon and those at the table are vegetarians. There's a salad bar for them...personally, I prefer the full menu.