Long Live The King

I am not a girly girl. I can pull off feminine now, but I am, in general, a pretty low maintenance woman.  Except that I love what I do for a living, I am nothing like the stereotypical girl in my line of work.  Maybe that is a result of the environment of my upbringing.  With a tomboy for a mom, a manly-man father, five brothers, and two sisters that were much younger than me, there weren't a lot of dolls and dresses around for my younger years.  I remember hours upon hours of "road" building for Tonka's and Matchbox cars, weekends trash-talking football and baseball games with the brothers, playing "night games" (our version of special forces in search of the enemy) with the neighbors, and shooting gophers on the weekends.  I don't remember dressing as a princess for Halloween.   

I know I raised more than one set of eyebrows when I announced my freshman year of high school, that I wanted to go to cosmetology school.  Why?  I still can't pinpoint what it was that was so appealing, but I do remember the day I decided.  My mom, who by-the-way is uneducated in the field, had always cut our hair.  The week before school started that year, my grandma visited and put her foot down.  The girls were going to a real salon for back to school haircuts.  The haircut itself was horrible.  My mom could have done better with her eyes shut. (The salon closed within months, so I must not have been the only one with issues.)  I spent the remainder of that awful year hating my curls and wishing I had a hat. I do, however, remember in detail the smells, my first ever shampoo in that fantastic sink, the upbeat music, the sound of the shears as my long hair hit the floor, the stacks and stacks of possibilities in style books...  I was hooked.  THIS is what I want to do!

Anyway, I digress.  The challenge today is the same:  Solitude in nature for at least five minutes, journaling about our thoughts.  I am sitting outside my salon between appointments.  Not the most picturesque location, nor the most peaceful.  People are repairing the portion of our building that burned last month.  WOW!! I am thankful for a place to work!

Week 2 Day 3

It's COLD!  There is not snow on the ground anymore in town.  The sun is so bright today.  Bright enough that I braved the 34 degrees, jacketless, just to feel the contrast of the cold air and the hot sun.  The wind is gentle today, swirling the leaves at our door.  When the drilling and hammering stops I can hear birds!  They seem happy, excited.  In my head is a song, as usual.  I imagine the birds know it, or one like it.

But I know the King of All Creation reigns completely
Over every moment great and small
Long live the One who gives us
Life and peace and hope for tomorrow ...

All I have is yours - Long live the King.

I remember yesterday's exercise.  My thoughts of the deeply loving Father turn into Him being King.  That makes me a princess?  I'm wearing green today, so naturally I see myself as Shrek's woman Fiona.  I feel a little Ogre-esque most days.

Princesses are so undeserving!  All they did to get the title was be born, and they really had very little control over that. Grace is receiving what we don't deserve and didn't earn.  The King of Kings graciously adopted me, a tomboy ogre, to represent His Kingdom as his daughter.  Unfathomable. But, I think I like it.