I am ashamed to say that I ordered a lavender honey latte today, and I do not have the chic, plastic-rimmed glasses to go with it.
When I was a girl in Catholic school, I attempted to fail the eyesight test every year. Everyone in my family had glasses, and I desperately wanted them.
Shocker… I was a talker and comedian in school.
As it occurred to me, my teachers would not allow me out of that box. However, the students with glasses were let off the hook for slipping up, as they appeared to be intellectuals. So (not sure how I got here), I saw glasses as the quick fix to ensuring that I would be taken seriously.
My performances started in 4th grade. I would walk into the testing room of the school, each year and (not-so-subtly) try to fail the eyesight test. It hadn’t occurred to me that Mrs. O’Brien was probably on to me…even though I tested with better than 20/20 vision every year, previous to my failed attempts. When I got into 7th grade, we lined up to take the test. I walked in, stared at the chart, and as I started to read the top letter as an “M,” Mrs. O’Brien interrupted me, “Ok, Lisa. That’s interesting. You read it perfectly last year. So, let’s try that again, please.”
Sigh.
I rattled them off. “E, F, P, T, O, Z, L, P, E, D…blah, blah, blah. Can I go now???”
School Nurse and Killer of Joy. “You don’t know anything.” As a child, I constantly murmured this in my head and under my breath.
I was never given the clearance to go get my eyes checked.
Throughout high school, I purchased fake glasses from a local accessories store, and just owned up to the fact that I had perfect vision, but I chose to wear glasses because I thought they looked so amazing!
When my second son was born, my eyesight changed, and I excitedly drove myself to the optometrist and sat for the test. “Hormones,” she said. “It’s probably your hormones, and if it’s not hindering your eyesight as you drive, we can wait another 6 months to test you again and see if you actually need glasses.” What the?!? You don’t know anything…I murmured in my head.
I asked to try on other people’s glasses to see what I would look like with them on…this baby was not impressed 🙂
I couldn’t even win at failing. I scared a baby…a BABY!!! Look at me smiling next to him in that picture…what a weirdo!
My eyesight was too damn perfect, and I resented it! I didn’t know anything.
I still watch people that wear them, stare as they walk by, and admire their glasses’s color or shape…but I’m not meant to wear them. “Why?” so many of my friends and family asked. “You should be glad that you don’t have bad eyesight, Lisa.” my mother would say, as I would roll my eyes, murmuring “You don’t know anything,” in my head. I just wanted them, badly…and they weren’t for me. I wasn’t created with the eyesight that warranted them.
Isn’t this what we do???
We look at things we want and what others have, and we obsess over them. Sometimes, we try so hard to push the square peg into that round hole, when it’s just not meant to be! I was guilty of this. We all are, at some point.
Brene Brown said, “When we deny our stories, they define us….Owning our story and loving ourselves through that process is the bravest thing that we will ever do.” Genius…because when we let go of shame and stop trying to be successful or beautiful by the world’s definitions, we become these breathtaking, unique specimens of what we are meant to be!
Still, we want things that are (possibly) not meant for us.
To be taller. To be thinner. To be richer. To have more stuff. To have better hair. To have thinner thighs. To have kids. To have more kids. To be married. To be divorced. To be liked. For life to be easier than it is now. To have complete control over it.
What if we were grateful for what we have? What if we were grateful for where we are?
What if we embraced discomfort…and if out of our comfort zone were the only place we could grow and flourish? What if that place of surrender was the only place you could get what you wanted? What if we just leaned into our situation?
What if taking control of our lives, actually looked like surrender?
I was thinking about the idea of surrender the other day, and it’s a funny thing, y’all…
In war, surrender usually leads to defeat.
BUT…in love, surrender leads to deeper love.
What are we so afraid of? There is no war against us in this life! As I see it, every true desire in our hearts was placed there for a reason, and those desires will lead us exactly where we are meant to be.
I couldn’t get glasses. Eventually, I stopped trying to win that battle, and I leaned into the other things.
I sang. I played. I wrote. I connected. I leaned into all of it, and the more I did, the better I knew myself. The more I did, the easier I excelled.
In her book, A Return to Love, Marianne Williamson speaks to the role of fear, how it holds us back, and what we are meant to be. This is one of my favorite quotes….
Lean in to who you are called to be.
Surrender fear, shame, and control.
Lean in, and see where that takes you.