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Express Yourself – Put on Your Gold Hat!

Express Yourself – Put on Your Gold Hat!

Author’s Note: I’m sharing this piece from some years back to encourage anyone who needs encouragement to express yourself without fear of what others think. You are important. Your voice is needed. Your expression is unique and valuable. 

In 2014 I began to learn who I am and how to please myself. My Dad had recently died, and with his passing the foundations of life as I had known it began to crack. Through these seismic shifts delicate tendrils of a new, more authentic me began to emerge.

Around that time I went to a hat sale.

It was a charity event and I was determined to support the cause. I tried on hat after hat after hat, but nothing worked. Finally, as if guided by a will of its own, I saw my hand reach for the most extravagant and, well, gaudiest hat on the table.

It was like that moment before a fall, where everything shifts into slow motion: my hand reaching for the hat, my mind silently screaming “Noooooo – not that one!” I mean, the hat was just too much: shiny, gold, glittering, with a wide brim, and a glossy satin bow.

Wouldn’t ya know? The hat fit.

And darn if that thing didn’t look good on me!

A confession: I might secretly wish to be a natural linen-wearing sophisticate, however, deep down inside I’m still a little girl who reaches for shiny objects and bright colors. My mind did not like the hat, but my soul surely loved it. I glowed the minute I put it on.

Oh dear. Should I buy it, or shouldn’t I? Would I wear it, or wouldn’t I? Could I pull it off, or couldn’t I?

Back and forth my intellect and my inner child struggled. Finally, remembering that the sale was for a good cause, I surrendered the tug of war to my inner child.

I bought the hat.

I took the hat home and gingerly placed it up on the top shelf in my hall closet.

And there it sat.

Now that I bought it, I wasn’t quite sure what to do with it. I tried it with one or two outfits, but nothing felt right. So the hat sat on the shelf in the closet. I looked at it, and it seemed to look right back at me: détente.

One sunny morning…

I was ready to go out with my young son, when as if on command my hand once again acted of its own accord: I reached into the closet, grabbed the hat and put it on.

I was astonished to find that the hat worked just fine with the navy dress I had on. This could be my only chance so, hat perched firmly on my head, I grabbed my son’s hand and we marched out the door.

Two houses down my elderly neighbor, Irma, did a double take. She looked at me quizzically for a moment. I held my breath. “Nice hat!” she finally said, sounding somewhat incredulous.

With thanks, we marched on. So far, so good.

On the next block a complete stranger called out to me from across the street, tapping his head with his finger. “What?” I asked with a smile. “Crazy hat,” he said, quite seriously.

A haiku of a life lesson

Ah! There it was, a haiku of a life lesson. Two swift strokes – one up, one down – reverberating against each other.

Up, down, nice hat, crazy hat – I had to laugh. I couldn’t please all the people all the time. I had to please myself! And to please myself, I had to take risks.

At the time, I had been working on my book, Follow the Yarn. I had been putting myself out there in ways I had never done before when I allowed what started as a collection of knitting tips to morph into a journal of self-discovery. It was scary to allow my truth onto the page – truth I had hardly admitted to myself.

The incident with the Hat gave me a reminder not to crave approval, nor to fear criticism, but to keep on expressing my truth.

Even wearing a hat can be an act of courage.

Not everyone will like it. Not everyone will approve. Whatever others think will have more to do with them than with me.

If I don’t express myself, the nay-sayers will have won and nothing good – for them or for me – will come of that victory. If I express myself, I satisfy my soul and maybe even inspire others to express themselves and satisfy their souls as well.

When my son and I got to where we were going, we bumped into a friend who remarked that she had originally donated the hat to the sale where I found it. She had purchased it at a previous charity sale, got home and realized it just wasn’t for her. My friend was part of the twists and turns of the hat’s journey.

For the rest of the day, the hat sparked compliments, laughter and stories from most everyone I met.

Since writing this story my neighbor, Irma, who gave me the original thumbs up, has passed. She reached her nineties in fine form, swimming, playing tennis, taking in shows, and going on cruises where she would out-dance folks less than half her age. Irma had a talent for happiness. I like to think that she recognized the joyous nature of the hat as a kindred spirit, and feel somehow blessed by that recognition.

Two strokes of the haiku, one up and one down, are not equal: I choose to be on Irma’s team.

When I brought the hat home it felt like a challenge. Then it became a teacher, the gentle instrument of a lesson in self-acceptance. Now the hat is part of your life, too, and here’s to the acts of courage and self-expression it inspires in you! So, go on. Wear the gold hat!

It’s not just skeletons in people’s closets; what fabulousness might be in there as well? Or perhaps it’s that our wondrous, dreams of delight turn into dusty skeletons if they are not taken out to shine. Let them out into the sunlight – while we still have the chance, while they still have golden treasures to share!

 

Join Reba on the 2nd Tuesday of every month for her online group, The Stargate Meditation Circle. In a warm and inclusive setting explore the potency of the Stargate Meditation to easily and gently help you release blocks and connect with an energy of love and support that has transformed so many lives.

Click here to learn more about working privately with Reba Linker.

Question of the Week

A question for You, Beautiful One:

What is something you might do differently if you had no fear of what others think? 

Join us every Monday at FB AtoZ Healing Page – https://www.facebook.com/AtoZHealingPage – for a lively discussion of the Question of the Week.

Channeled Message from the Flowers

Channeled Message from the Flowers

A Channeled Message from the Flowers…

A flower has the freedom to just BE.
To move without doubt towards what it needs.

It never asks…
Is it OK to move towards the Light?
Or, did I do that well enough?
Or, why am I not more like that flower over there?

Each flower is fully, beautifully, freely, and magnificently ITSELF,
from the smallest Baby’s Breath, to the most extravagant Hibiscus,
and a world of variations in between and beyond.

BE FREE to BE YOU.

This is the freedom of complete self-acceptance and complete
lack of self-judgment except as expressed in Joy of Your Own Being-ness.
This is the joy of self-love, the full connection to your Divine Essence.

Go within and find the essence of the flowers’ message of freedom within You.
Feel, or imagine, the pure BEing-ness of its experience.
Feel the permission to BE YOU…

I  am  r e a d y  t o  B e  Me .

I  am  r e a d y  t o  B e  F r e e .

I  am  F r e e  t o  B e  Me .

Like the flower –  a living, responding entity, not frozen in time or space –
so, too, you are responsive…
to move towards the light, towards what brings you joy;
to quietly pull within when it’s dark;
to be OK with perhaps thorns or burrs
– this is the fullness of your nature.

You can be Free to Be You, to allow yourself to be your Unique Self,
to see your actions with compassion and acceptance.
These are the messages from the Freedom of the Flowers.

– Channeled by Reba Linker 2020

This Channeled Message from the Flowers offers you support in the areas of Self-Love and Self-Acceptance. They have so much wisdom to share as they live their lives, unselfconsciously sharing their exquisite Beauty, and answering their needs without self-doubt or self-condemnation. There is much to learn from them, indeed!

Join Reba on the 2nd Tuesday of every month for her online group, The Stargate Meditation Circle. In a warm and inclusive setting explore the potency of the Stargate Meditation to easily and gently help you release blocks and connect with an energy of love and support that has transformed so many lives.

Explore Private Sessions/Akashic Readings with Reba