Well, today I had a lovely breakfast with a friend from long ago. It was delightful to catch up. I don't think I'd seen Lorinda since we had dinner at their house shortly after Colin was born. He was born in 1993. Yikes! Really? Allow me to recommend having breakfast with an old friend. It was a pleasure.
After breakfast I had a list of errands to face. These days I'm chauffeured around by my mom or dad. Still not allowed to drive, you see, and they are SO graciously helping me accomplish my do-list before departure next Tuesday.
But guess what the first errand of the day was. According to my own instructions, it was "Buy a new bathing suit." Noooooooooo!
Buying a new bathing suit is not a task that faint hearted women should face. Men are TOTALLY different. I know this because I have 4 of them in my life and they couldn't care less what they swim in. They swim in the shorts they have on, their boxers, torn and faded board shorts from a hundred years ago, or, most favorite of all, nothing. Left to their own devices, they would definitely swim in nothing. Dorks.
(Maybe I'm just jealous.)
Here's the thing: I bought a new suit today and it was pretty much a painless event. I was SHOCKED.
Was it painless because I just look so great in a swimsuit? Oh, no. Nothing could be further from the truth. I look, pretty much, DREADFUL in a bathing suit. Especially today. Due to having 2 types of skin cancer cells removed from my face a couple of years ago, I've kept my body out of the sun so my legs are white, white, white. And soft. Yes. I'd love to be able to blame it on having exercise severely restricted for the past four weeks since surgery but, really, they were soft going in. My doctor told me very sternly that my abdominal muscles were on vacation for 6 weeks after the event but the real truth is that they've ALWAYS been on vacation. So, there you go. Whatever! I'll try to be better. Tomorrow, maybe. Or some time. Right now I still have 2 weeks of vacation time left.
Anyway, I took 5 suits into the changing room, narrowed it down to 2 and then bought one. It was a close call between the final 2 but I decided that the one wasn't $40 cuter than the other. Best stick to the less expensive one. And I don't really know why it was painless today. I just looked at myself and said, "Yea, fine. This is cute. Great. Done!"
Here's what I think... I'm 48 and I know a thing or two. I know I'm not the sum total of my parts or the presentation of same. I know life is good and precious and terribly, terribly fragile. I know that I sat with a girlfriend today and we talked about things that matter to us. My spirit and soul were filled by our conversation. Our meeting came in a string of days of beautiful visits with other precious women in my life; women who hold me in their hearts and allow me to be myself there.
My conclusion is this... Meaningful connections restore proper perspective. With heart all full, I understand what it really means to feel fabulous.
Bless you, ladies. You know who you are.
4 comments:
How can it be, Lisa, that you reach deep into my soul when you write about buying a bathing suit? May God bless that sensitive, authentic soul of yours as you tackle the dreaded task of packing and departing.
Thanks, Elizabeth. The packing and leave-taking is VERY dreaded!
...and that is why you wrote Approaching God. If you can reach deep into the soul while writing about the dreaded trying on of bathing suits, you definitely have a gift we enjoy reading. :)
Lisa, I love this. And I really hope it becomes more true for us following you.
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