A NOTE TO MY FUTURE DAUGHTER.........

     To my future daughter....if I have one in the FAR FAR away future (the likelihood of this when looking at the track record of the Brindley men being very slim), may you be more absorbed with the kind of person God made you than the kind of person society wishes you to be. May you be enveloped in self-confidence and blanketed in the strongest faith. Though I do not understand, as most women don't, why we are the way we are and why we think the way we think, may you overcome it. May you not be consumed with your outward appearance, but always desire to improve the inward.
And until then I will continue to ask myself:
     Why did God make us so vulnerable to the world around us? And why do people feel free to target our vulerability? They use it for marketing tools, advertising gimics, even in the political arena.
   Victoria's Secret, why are you putting in my husband's head that I am supposed to look like one of your models all the time....for the rest of my life?! Skinny jeans, how am I supposed to fit into you when I am bloated, and what about when I have a baby?! CoverGirl, why are my zits not still covered when I wake up in the morning?! Extreme diets and exercise plans why are your promises of results always a tall tale?!
      Well.......I don't think they care. I think they just want to SELL, SELL, SELL. While we, the poor, pathetic, self-conscious consumer has to BUY, BUY, BUY; despite the lack of satisfaction and the absense of results that we inherit from our purchases
     Today marks the beginning of beautifying the inside. Of healing my heart, and freeing my mind, of taking my focus off of myself, of feeling beautiful everyday (even without makeup), of being ME.

SUPERHEROES

         It's a bit overwhelming how heavy things can be to carry at times. And just when, "I thought it was already heavy as can be" (Iron and Wine, Waitin for Superman), it gets heavier.
        The idea of the superhero; someone stronger, braver, smarter, quicker gives us hope. Expectation in a weakened state, fortitude to persist. A SUPERHERO, a being created to aid and protect us through adversity and catastrophe, in turn, makes us fearless. The feeling of invincibility, like being bullet proof, after watching a superhero in action boosts our assurance and gives us an ora of credence.
         Unfortunately, sometimes heartbreak drives a faster car, dissapointment soars higher in the clouds, affliction blows through thicker walls. What do we do then, when something is too heavy to lift and even too heavy for our superheroes?....then reality checks in, and we are forced to remember Who the real superhero is and will always be. Because no car is made faster, there is nothing that can soar higher, and no creature stronger than Him.

TEARS

        Since I have gotten married, for some bizarre and inexplicable reason, unmitigated emotional upheavals have spawned tears, tears which seem to stream uncontrollably. I don't know if it is because of my newfound awareness with things of love and life, or if it is simply, well.....hormonal.

       In doing some research, purely out of curiosity, I discovered a little known, but somewhat comforting, quote from an unlikely source. Who would have thought that behind novels and short stories, very well-known to the common man, such as The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle, was a wise man with a wise diagnosis of the symbolic nature of our tears?

       I, myself, have always been one who refused to allow anyone to witness my own tears, considering them to be a display of weakness. I still have that apprehension even today. But after uncovering this obscure citation from Washington Irving (author of the aforementioned stories) I am slightly more dauntless in breaking down the dam and letting the waters flow. After reading this quote, you may be too:

                    "There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness,
                    but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues.
                    They are messengers of overwhelming grief...and unspeakable love."