I had worn it all over the world:
to lunch with my family in Missouri,
to see my gals in Uganda,
and to sail sailboats in Austria...
...actually sailing was the last time I ever wore this dress.
Due to a quick lapse of judgement (led by my prior camp counselor confidence),
I somehow believed I could navigate the Danube River on a windy day in June on a sailboat made for two.
Sure enough, as I flung my body to the other side of the boat to dodge “the boom,” I ripped my dress right up the back and nearly in pieces.
It was ruined, but our day wasn’t.
Despite laughing from start to finish, sailing proved to be much harder than I remembered. But I sported my ripped maxi all through Vienna as a symbol of plans gone array (& a gal who knows how to laugh at herself.)
I must have left the dress in Germany before coming back to the States,
(It was 2016 8 LK and I were just starting our long-distance days), because on Sunday (April 26, 2020), LK’s mom gave this to me; a mask made of the fabric from my old dress.
A dress I had worn:
to lunch with my family in Missouri,
to see my gals in Uganda,
and to sail sailboats in Austria.
And now to wear as a mask in Germany in the midst of a global pandemic.
A mask made of fabric that holds some of my favourite memories,
fabric that reminds me of the joy of what’s already come
& the promise that even broken things can be made new.
_____
If you feel like you’re worn, shattered or torn,
you may be being repurposed for something new -
for a purpose you’ve never dreamed of or
for just a time as this.
Keep your head up, friends.
💗
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