Brown Sugar

It started a few years ago. Every now and then, I'd find one. I'd groan, get rid of it and move on. And then, this year, they started showing up three at a time. Pretty soon, there was no hope to simply shed them--they had to be conquered.

Yes, that's right. My hair has decided to change color all on it's own. But instead of the soft brown with the occasional red highlight, that all the other hairs on my head have been for the last twenty odd years, these pesky ones on the top of my head prefer a more snowy shade--much like the one found on my mother's head, and as much as I love my mother, well, let's just say I'm too young to look like her in this particular way. Something had to be done.

But where to start?The multitudes of boxes stared at me from the shelves of the store. It couldn't possibly be plain brown...not my head o' hair. But plain brown wasn't even an option--there's just "carmel mocha" and "almond cappacino" and then there it was..."Brown sugar". Or in layman's terms "Light Golden Brown"...a perfect match. I marched my way to the check out sure that no one would ever know--it was my natural hair color only in a box. Or was it? The smiling woman on the package just beamed with confidence but I wasn't so sure she could be trusted. My roommate assured me that people do this all the time.. so I let her put the sticky, smelly stuff on my head.. and waited until the minutes ticked away...then it was shower time. And all the brown went down the drain, and it dried--it looked the same--hurray!

But as it dried.. it got lighter, and redder. and now I can tell I dyed my hair and I don't like the fact--not with my allergy to change. I suppose once I get used to this, it'lll grow out and cause me panic again. Sigh.

Shower of Flowers

I like giving flowers. Now don't get me wrong I like getting them too. But the reaction to flowers is almost unfailingly positve, so I don't like to wait on the thoughtfulness of others. And giving flowers for no reason at all, just to say "cheer up" or "surprise" or "glad you're you" does something good for my soul--one of those mysterious 'giving is better than receiving' sort of things no doubt. Today, it was "happy spring"--it's still March and there's still some very ugly snow on the ground, but you can almost taste it on the breeze and the temp is up to 50 degrees--and though they don't last forever, flowers always make me smile, and everyone could use a few more smiles--and so I bought flowers and gave them to a few friends. If gift giving is ever a selfish thing to do, then I'm guilty today, because I felt so good dropping them off.

And why is it that girls are the only ones who ever get flowers? It seems that some girls acutally need to have flowers sent to them on all special occasions. How often do you hear about a boy getting flowers sent to him, aside from a death in the family? Never. And really, there's no reason for this, flowers are just God's gift to cheer one when one is down... or to say "I appreciate you" in a demonstrative way. And men can appreciate beauty, and a little color. And have you seen most guy's apartments? Not usually the most cheery places on the planet.

So send the boys flowers! and boys, appreciate the gesture, and the beauty and color of the flowers and of the one who sent them.

Peace on Earth

So why did I decide that all had to be well for me to be well? TV tells us that we must be happy and if we're not happy we must get happy. Unless you live in denial, life is not always happy--not even mostly.

But God doesn't promise happiness. He promises He'll be there when life isn't all you want it to be. He promises He'll stay the same when everything else changes. He promises to stay in when every other friend walks out. And when I concentrate on that, there's something better than happiness-- there's peace...and hope, that life may be happy yet.