I hugged Maye Musk.
So what?
It was a week before the pandemic hit and I went into Quarantine for now 24 days. Okay, I walk the dog around the block twice a day. Masked, with hat, glasses and in a big coat carefully keeping my distance especially from those renegades without masks. LA has a mask-on order since this Friday,
Alas. Hugging is a beautiful thing from the past.
I didn’t only hug Maye but one of the hosts, my friend Ann Gentry and half a dozen new connections at one of Jill’s happy women dinners.
Did I catch the virus there? It could also have been a Lassen’s crowded market place or a guy who sneezed on me at Gelson’s, the local grocery store. Do I have the virus? There’s no test for mild cases and I’m too scared to go outside to a packed hospital anyway. I am fighting something though since three week…
Metaphors fly in. “I’ve got something on my chest,” or “I’ve got a frog in my throat.” I went deeper into my questions, myself and slowly answers pop up in messages, comments and dreams. My symptoms seem to respond to my insights like magic. Yesterday night I woke up amidst a vivid dream and sobbed. I let go of guilt from my past I had ignored, which sat heavy on my chest. My inflammation is not gone but half as bad today. To find the nuggets of awareness in the mess we’re in is one of our chances to get out, better.
I had hesitated to risk the dinner meet as 40 women were invited. Deciding to go despite the virus in the naivete of early March I rushed out of the house, not groomed as most of the time. My hair wasn’t styled. I still asked for a photo shoot with Maye. I still enjoyed the cameras flashing; I was good enough. One of the first times I consciously thought, eff the hair, the imperfections; I am good enough. It was a rush of joy and combined with Maye’s joie de vivre this evening became an amazingly empowering memory. I now hang on to it. I tend to see the darkest options first and felt the collective fear in my cells, a deep rooted tribal note in my genetic code. I need positivity; we need a positive future vision.
My real life ageless rebel lessons from my meeting with Maye are like guidelines, reminders for what we can learn during isolation. Without distraction from the outside we have the chance to find treasures on the inside, in storytelling wardrobes as much as in our psyche and the basements of our feelings.
Be always prepared and “ready” but if you’re not improvise with confidence. True confidence comes from our essence and letting go of the learned programs often hiding our power.
Don’t take NO for an answer. When we know and own our yes we can stand up for it. Rules are often there to be questioned.
Be as grand as you like, its now or never to discover true passion and purpose.
I called reinvention an inherent power of midlife. Midlife is a mini emergency and navigating our challenges made us wiser, wittier and stronger. We have reinvention training, let’s use it. Isolation is a gateway to rethinking the past and rebuilding the future with the world in mind, all of us. If we want hugs back ego has to go.
Bad hair days and “not good enough” belong to the past. Vanities are good for one thing only; to discover what’s in there for us. Where do our insecurities come from and what’s our medicine?
Fessing up to true desires; if our Yes was planned to play out in the outside world we find a new stage online, we McGyver it.
Our outfits have power, they attract connections and show us who our friends are. Truth lies in our wardrobes; who we are and are not anymore. Dive into your wardrobe with me and find treasures, then revamp them into your confident knowing self. Show the stories and epiphanies you discover not just your pretty. Choose depth over surface.
Be prepared and ready that when we show our “real” not only friends but foes and haters might show up. We can’t please everybody and that’s okay. It’s not the numbers that count, not in our birth certificate nor of our friends and followers. It’s mindset and energy, a vibration of like-mindedness that connects us. (Upcoming story in the “lessons from Corona” - What type of friends do we want in midlife?)
Not everybody can be or wants to be a model or famous IG influencer; our power lies in what we stand for and what our true talents are, those which contribute to life. We all need to survive and each for themselves is another outmoded attitude that belongs into the trash. Hassle is so last year….
What was “normal” did not work. We lost a lot because we played by rules prescribed by big business and the lord of cash. It’s time to free your ageless rebel magic.
What is your reinvention?