WTF…Redefined

You flip one off to someone because they cut you off in traffic...WTF?

You don’t get the job you were sure you’d get…WTF?

You end up in the hospital when you thought you were doing so well...WTF?

But what about……???

You buy a brand-new blue Porshe convertible…WTF?

You want to go to Machu Picchu…WTF?

You want to dance naked…WTF?

You want to live by the ocean…WTF?

You live in a mansion in the city…WTF?

You watch a movie or read a romance or listen to your top favorite songs…WTF?

 

WTF?

Oh!  You thought I meant, What the F*ck???

F*ck, no!

What’s the Feeling???

You look at pictures…

You love someone…

You hate another…

You play an instrument…

You go to a game…

You play a sport…

You text someone...

You make sand castles…

You paint…

You get tattooed…

You pierce a body part…

You wear your clothes…

The list is endless.

You do the things you do because of how they feel.

You want the things you want because of how they feel.

You say the things you say because of how you feel when you say them.

WTF – What’s the feeling????

What’s the feeling you associate with the thing(s) you want?

What’s the feeling you have when you think about that person you love?

What’s the feeling when you think about the money you want that you don’t yet have?

How it feels is the key to everything.

How it feels is the key to why you want anything.

How it feels is the key to why you don’t want something.

How it feels...is what you want.  

The thing you’ve acknowledged that you want, just represents that feeling for you.

What if you could feel it now whether or not you have it?

What if you could feel it now whether or not you’re living it?

What if you could feel the way you want to feel anyway?

Rad, maybe.  Essential, yes.

Because unless and until you feel the way you think you’ll feel when you have the thing you want, not only will the thing you want be longer in coming, but you’ll also not enjoy your way to the things you want so much either.

It’s kind of like eating an oreo cookie without the middle. Or an éclair without the filling.  Or an orgasm without the lead-in.

What’s in the middle is part of what makes the entirety of it so much more complete and satisfying.

You may think you need to have that thing, or be with that person, or see your bank account line up with zero’s behind a single digit.

But you don’t have to wait until….

You can feel it now.

Ask yourself…WTF?

And feel it now….

On Dancing Naked and the Power of Letting Go

I danced naked on the sidewalk the other day.  Ran circles around Franki as she stood, also naked.

Let’s back up a little….

We’d just finished swimming and had come inside to dry off.  I stripped my bathing suit off and wrapped a towel around me.  Franki, bottoms off, top on, said she was cold, so I suggested she take her wet top off and wrap the towel around her as I had. 

We walked toward our front porch to hang our suits up to dry and when we got out there, her towel came off and she exclaimed, “Let’s have a naked dance party”!!

I laughed and said, “Sure, go ahead”!

Spontaneous dance parties are not unusual around here.  Franki naked is not unusual around here either.

But her determination about me taking my towel off, was. 

“Come on, mama.  Let’s do it”, she said. 

My eyes darted left and right and off into the distance.  No neighbors in sight.  No one looking.  Six foot high ornamental grasses surrounding me - offering cover, and yet, I hesitated.

“Come over here.  It’s ok, mama”, she said with certainty standing several feet away from me.

I paused, feeling timid about her request.  She was asking me to take my towel off, bare my nakedness, walk down the steps to the center of our sidewalk…and dance. 

With flip-flops on.

She wanted me to leave the security of my towel on the chair.  Let it go.…

Not keep it near me. 

Not hold it. 

Walk away.

Leave it. 

And she wanted me to follow her to a place that seemed far, far away….what seemed like miles away from the safety of the fabric wrapped around me… but really only about 15 feet away.

The mere idea of it washed over me as self-consciousness. 

The desire to do it and the hesitation, at odds with each other. 

I questioned myself as I looked around, “Can I do this?”, as I wafted from feeling self-conscious and bare to exhilarated at the idea of, “dare I do it”. 

It’s pretty normal for Franki to be walking around the house naked.  For me?  Not so much.  Although I have sat topless at our kitchen table, eating lunch with her.  But that’s a whole other story….

Franki hasn’t yet been trained to be so conscious of self or her body.  She hasn’t formed a set of beliefs that limit her experience in the way I have.  She hasn’t heard criticism from others and no harsh voice of her own has taken residence inside her head.   

In that moment, I recognized the metaphor. 

The towel I was being beckoned to shed - a symbol of my limiting beliefs, old thoughts I’ve held and carried about myself, the concerns about judgment, the self-consciousness of being seen – really seen in the expression of who I am.

Franki – representing freedom, unapologetic expression and the life and desires I’m reaching for – calling me out from the towel I’ve wrapped around me.

I let go. 

I took that towel and threw it, following Franki’s lead to dance naked on the sidewalk donning only the flip-flops on my feet.

Your desires will cause you to expand. 

Your desires will have you stretching beyond your current beliefs about yourself, your abilities and the possibilities that lay before you. 

When you’re asked to take that towel off, what will you do?

Hold the towel and wrap it around even tighter?

Perhaps loosen it, if only a little?

Or, will you take that towel off completely and go dance naked on the sidewalk?

Life is filled with moments where you can make new decisions about who you are.  You’re going to find yourself throwing that towel off and then finding another towel, wrapped tightly around you. 

Don’t let it stop you.

Choose to dance naked and let the towel go.