Well, after a couple of rather heavy and/or ranty posts lately, I'd say that we're all due for something a bit more uplifting, eh? So today, I wanted to share something that I've been thinking about quite a lot over the past few months, and talk a little bit about kindness.
First of all: look at this bolero! It's covered in golden stars, goes perfectly over a swing dress, and fit me perfectly, particularly before my bump colonized my entire torso. Can you think of anything that would be more perfect for a space- and vintage-style-obsessed gal? I'm still a bit baffled that I didn't pick it up directly from Collectif, but I suspect the issue involved my clothing budget.
But like many of my favorite garments, this bolero has a story attached to it that makes it extra-special to me. You see, this bolero was a surprise. Grab a snack and/or a cup of tea, because it's storytime!
I'm a big fan of the Saturday Night style from Bernie Dexter, as well as the red poppy print she's offered in a few different styles. So when I saw that one of my Insta friends was selling her Saturday Night in red poppies, a long-discontinued dress, I snapped it up, and settled in to wait while it made its way from Australia to the American Midwest.
Buying that dress was one of the few bits of retail therapy I indulged in while everything was going wrong earlier this year. I'd spent close to two months in a withdrawn state. Apart from my initial, frenzied use of Facebook and Instagram to coordinate the search for my sister when she went missing in February, I spent very little time online. In retrospect, I'm not really sure how I spent that time, apart from my frequent trips home for one reason or another.
In short, this spring was the most difficult, emotionally draining, trying period of my life, and my family and I are still coming to terms with how it's changed things for us.
Anyway, dresses make me happy, so I bought one I'd been wishing for, and one day it showed up. And when I opened the package, out popped the dress, an assortment of delightful candies, this bolero, and a note that I'll treasure forever.
My friend's note reminded me that I wasn't alone: that even though I felt like I'd fallen into a bottomless pit of despair and wasn't sure if one of the main people in my life would ever find her way back to herself, I was still connected to so many lovely, kind, caring people. I was in floods, but for the first time in quite a while, they weren't sad tears. My eyes just couldn't contain my feelings, that was all.
And whenever I look at this bolero or pop it over my sundresses at work, I'm reminded of feeling so cared for in such an unexpected moment, and I remember that I don't have to push through on my own, because I'm not alone.
In sharing this, I'm hoping to remind myself, and all of you, that each one of us has tremendous potential to affect the people in our lives. And what you might feel is a relatively ordinary act of kindness to you might, to its recipient, become a source of strength and light beyond your imagining. All of that is another way of saying 'be kind to each other.' Kindness has more power than we know. Thank you, Ellyza.
I'm a big fan of the Saturday Night style from Bernie Dexter, as well as the red poppy print she's offered in a few different styles. So when I saw that one of my Insta friends was selling her Saturday Night in red poppies, a long-discontinued dress, I snapped it up, and settled in to wait while it made its way from Australia to the American Midwest.
Buying that dress was one of the few bits of retail therapy I indulged in while everything was going wrong earlier this year. I'd spent close to two months in a withdrawn state. Apart from my initial, frenzied use of Facebook and Instagram to coordinate the search for my sister when she went missing in February, I spent very little time online. In retrospect, I'm not really sure how I spent that time, apart from my frequent trips home for one reason or another.
In short, this spring was the most difficult, emotionally draining, trying period of my life, and my family and I are still coming to terms with how it's changed things for us.
Anyway, dresses make me happy, so I bought one I'd been wishing for, and one day it showed up. And when I opened the package, out popped the dress, an assortment of delightful candies, this bolero, and a note that I'll treasure forever.
My friend's note reminded me that I wasn't alone: that even though I felt like I'd fallen into a bottomless pit of despair and wasn't sure if one of the main people in my life would ever find her way back to herself, I was still connected to so many lovely, kind, caring people. I was in floods, but for the first time in quite a while, they weren't sad tears. My eyes just couldn't contain my feelings, that was all.
And whenever I look at this bolero or pop it over my sundresses at work, I'm reminded of feeling so cared for in such an unexpected moment, and I remember that I don't have to push through on my own, because I'm not alone.
In sharing this, I'm hoping to remind myself, and all of you, that each one of us has tremendous potential to affect the people in our lives. And what you might feel is a relatively ordinary act of kindness to you might, to its recipient, become a source of strength and light beyond your imagining. All of that is another way of saying 'be kind to each other.' Kindness has more power than we know. Thank you, Ellyza.
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How wonderful!
ReplyDeleteIt's so easy to forget sometimes that people do care, and kindness exists.
Cora ❤ http://www.teapartyprincess.co.uk/
Ooookay - this just made me ugly cry. One day we will meet in real life and I'm going to give you the biggest squeeze EVER.
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