Found

This is the haircut I had through most of my childhood.

This is the haircut I had after I lost weight and rediscovered my skinny self (15 years ago).

This is the haircut that I had when I met my husband.

And a lots of stuff happened after that – mostly good, and including the blessing that is a husband who loves good food and doesn’t mind a wife with a bit of extra padding, and a curtailed social life.

Somewhere in all that I lost myself a bit and wasn’t actually really aware of it.  Life, marriage, working, children, house-maintenance, hobbies, general enjoyment and general distractions, too much TV…..

The past month (including the big 40) have had a profound effect on me, and I have had a returning to self of so many kinds I have lost count.  Embracing all the changes, and change itself has been a big one, and quietening the inner chatter that causes so many problems has been another.  The inner chatter is very destructive in my case, and peace and beauty has abounded in the quietness.

I have been shedding.  Weight (early days yet), clutter, memories, distractions, and trying to resist the temptation to restock the empty space with anything other than space.

And I got a haircut – my old haircut, my ‘me’ haircut, which happens to be frighteningly similar to one of my very best friends haircut that has been her trademark for the entire time I have known her (more than 20 years).  I love it, it suits me, and in my new found lack of self-consciousness I will try to not think when people see us together that they will be thinking we look odd.

I did it for me, and it feels good to be back.

Oh, and I did another painting – the second in a ‘knees and toes’ series.

Kicks – oil on linen