This past Thursday I got my hair trimmed, as I discussed here, and I’m a little sad about it, for reasons discussed below.
Ironically, the uplifting message that has had me deeply positive and God-confident of late is entitled “Keep Your Crown.” (To hear the message at no cost, please visit this page and enter #671.) Yup, God is funny. After the trim that has me a little sad, it’s “Keep Your Crown” that has me elevated and lifted up. 😛 It’s a message that I’m going to try to listen to a few times a week over the next couple of weeks until it becomes a part of my thinking. I’m really grateful to God and Joel for it. A SUPER good word. 🙂
Why the Trim Feels Sad
So, with the trim I lost 2+ inches of hair, and now I can no longer ponytail my hair. Even shampooing and deep conditioning is longer/harder now. I do so in sections (twists), and with the old length it used to be easy to put in 3-4 twists on each side of my head. Now, due to the short length of my hair, I’m putting in about 7 twists on each side. That’s 14 sections to detangle and twist versus 6. It takes awhile and the additional time is time lost away from family, exercise, healthy cooking, etc. 😦
I showed my family my new hair, and they were all so encouraging: Mom reminded me that as a cancer survivor, she would love to have even a third of my hair. Friends reminded me that my hair grows pretty quickly, and that my length will be back before I know it.
That helped. 🙂 And, working to maintain a right/smart/wise attitude regarding all of this, I took time to reflect on recent soul/spirit -related studying I’ve been doing. Helpful is one of the quotes from my most recent soul/spirit blog post:
. . . the person with an abiding spirit of gratitude is the one who trusts God.
The foremost quality of a trusting disciple is gratefulness. Gratitude arises from the lived perception, evaluation, and acceptance of all of life as grace—as an undeserved and unearned gift from the Father’s hand. Such recognition is itself the work of grace, and acceptance of the gift is implicitly an acknowledgment of the Giver. (Manning, Ruthless Trust, p. 24)
Usually when I’m reminding myself to chill out about my hair, I tell myself that “It’s just hair.” But the quote above is more empowering: It’s having me tell myself that ALL of life is a gift: Being alive today is a gift, having a cancer-free mom today is a gift, having ANY HAIR TODAY is a gift. 🙂
I like that a lot better than, “Stop worrying about it, Yvette: After all, it’s JUST HAIR.” This other way instead says, “Thank You, God, for my life and my mom . . . and my hair. Thank you for all of it. I’m grateful to be ALIVE today, so, of course I’m grateful for Your blessing of healthy hair that I know can grow. Thank You for helping me keep it all in perspective and helping me maintain my joy.”
God is really good. 🙂 ❤
The Blossoming, Fit Natural 