My favorite color is burgundy - think the color of Cabernet Sauvignon. It’s rich and deep, bold and complex. I once received a bouquet of deep burgundy tulips and I thought to myself – if I was a flower, this is the color I would be.
I also love neutral colors. This tends to be what I most often will wear. Olivia Pope was my muse, finally a woman who gets me. Subtle pinks, warm tans, whites, browns. Whether in my home or in my make up palette – I’m an earthy, natural-toned kind of woman.
So when my friend gave me a red jacket – I was like ummmm… “thank you?”
For a couple weeks it stuck out against the backdrop of my more muted winter clothing. But today, I am teaching a training, and I needed a few layers cause it’s kinda cold (well, Southern California cold) so I pulled out the jacket to give at try. I soon realized - my neutral palette is not quite working with this jacket – it’s asking something of me. So at 7:45am I pulled out my red lipstick and a few other things and just like that – Boom – There’s a certain kind a mood wearing red evokes.
But this is not a posting about my lipstick or my new jacket.
I would never have purchased this jacket for myself. My yes to the gift was uncertain, tenuous. Knowing that it wasn’t my usual flow I still tried to just do my usual routine even though I suspected it probably wasn’t going to work. I then adapted in a way that brought out something new. I mean, I already owned the red lipstick, even if it isn’t seen much. What I noticed is that there’s a different part of me that comes out – and she’s more playful, spontaneous and wild. So during my teaching – I brought all that to the to the task, and it was just as much me.
When I finished, I sent my friend a picture of me in the jacket. And pondered – I wonder what it would be like if I had my close friends pick out my clothes from now on! Lol.
Sometimes people’s intimate (not necessarily romantic or sexual) see things in us, that we don’t see. They see it from a different perspective, they evoke other elements in us, they amplify, and draw out parts of our essence and talent – if we would but allow them to see us. I think this is what partners, friends, family Spiritual Counselors /Therapists and Coaches offer this to us and I think this is one of the greatest gifts Intimacy offers us.
This red jacket – interrupted my usual flow and was a great reminder, especially during these weeks where I have well worn groves of routine, that trying something new is necessary to feed the other part of me. I’m gonna call it my “red jacket practice” and see where else in my life I can meet an offering in the way I did with this jacket.
What about you…have you received a “red jacket?” lately?
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