Perspective

I don't enjoy getting up in the morning. I don't drink coffee and I'm not much of a morning person, but I am required to show up to work ready to start my day at 7 a.m. Early, I know...trust me, ha. So to save time and spare my skin during these winter months I'll occasionally just wash my hair in the tub so I don't have to get up quite as early [or that's what I've resorted to BECAUSE I don't get up as early].

Anyway, there I was earlier this week washing my hair as usual when I started looking around the bathroom behind me, with the blood rushing to my head as it hung soapy upside down. The bathroom looked different. Yes, it was exactly the same, everything was where it normally sat, but it was also different.

And that's the thing about life. It's remarkable really. If you only change your perspective on it, what once looked "blah", now looks a little different. I started out literal, but it brought me to the conclusion that if you want to be happy, truly happy and you're in a situation that has been "blah" for what seems like ages, maybe what you should be changing is not the situation but your view of it. And in flopping your view of the situation you will in turn alter the situation itself.

Strong words for something as simple as a quick hair scrub in the tub, but just a thought for your Saturday.

sylyb.

Not Exotic

Sometimes I wish I looked more exotic. You know, dark and mysterious. Grass is always greener right? I'm as far from exotic looking as you can get. German+Irish=Me

Yeah, I look as far from exotic as you can get. So much so that I get the old "I think I know you...I recognize you...we've met before" line by a random smattering of people. And no, not in the "you come here often" sense.  But maybe that means I look comforting, maybe that means I look like someone you'd like to become friends with, who knows? I'll take that as my consolation prize. Besides, I really really love my blue eyes.

Dirty dishwater blond hair, blue eyes, square face. Average height, average build. But I am me. I have my paternal grandmother's jaw, my maternal grandfather's eyes. I am the product of two people, a culmination of their personalities...with several additions of my own.

So I don't look exotic, but I've got a lot going for me...which is nice ;)

You Never Fall In Love the Same Way Twice

I love "love" and I'm a hopeless romantic. Jane Austen. Poetry. Grand gestures, quiet moments. I want it all. I want the passion, a playmate/partner in crime, a friend for life. I could go on and on...So in honor of the ever approaching St. Valentine's Day:

I read somewhere that you can never love the same way twice. These are very heavy words to process. You could take it that
1. A great love you had, one that you look back on and say to yourself "Man, if only I could have that again..." Or
2. A love you're happy to leave in the deep recesses of your memory banks "Thank goodness I learned my lessons from that and it is behind me."

The way I see it, having not been in a relationship for some time [and I'm content with that, I've got a lot of me to figure out still without attaching a "plus one" to the mix just yet] love shouldn't be the same way twice. You're not the same person with every single one of your friends, there's a different dynamic with your different relationships. Why should something as important as love be any different? I think love is not supposed to be the same. Love is too extensive, cannot be contained, and should not be attempted to be put on repeat. Don't read over the previous chapter and don't try and skip ahead. Begin the next chapter instead and read it page by page. This is life, and love is what makes it bearable.

You can wish all you want for what you had, or the what-ifs, or the bits of how things were before, but that's looking behind you for something that is yet to be discovered. Trust that the love you will have will be better than the loves you've experienced so far. Trust.

Trust, this word keeps ringing out clear to me in my prayers. Like a good wine, [or cheese or any other food metaphor you like with aging] or the scar on my foot from my trip to Mexico...they all require lots of time to be made into their best form, perfect. Good things worth waiting for are full bodied, and matured to perfection for that moment where it's all supposed to culminate, when the scar is so faded you forget you even were hurt in the first place.

And that's love, you're swimming in it and once overcome you forget about how painful it may have been to lose a love before. You trust that this love will be worth it all. And it will, in time...at just the right moment.

Have a very LOVEly Valentine's Day, all! And power to the people without a loved one this year, because you're passively preparing for the right moment when he or she will make your love story complete.

nos vemos. te quiero. adios