 |
| (photo from vidavitality.com) |
“Put
on your big girl panties and deal with it,” says one friend to another. To many
of us, it simply means to suck it up and get on with life. That’s not always
easy to do; life throws a lot of hard things our way, sometimes in quick
succession. But, to quote a lovely lady, “Yeah, I gotta invest in some of
those, might come in handy….”
This
lovely lady is a perfect stranger to me. I call her perfect because she’s
perfectly the kind of woman I’d love to be friends with. I mean, with how many
strangers can you bring up the topic of underwear and not immediately lose the
conversation?
We
tossed around the idea of writing a book on the topic together, all because of
an ad I placed to sell a party dress for my daughter-in-law. We even came up
with some clever titles: The Power of Ugly Underpants and The Trouble With Sexy
Underwear.
When
I pointed out that big girl panties aren’t pretty, she said, “It’s not the
appearance, rather the power. And power sometimes comes in the form of big,
plain, white ugly undies.”
Now,
if she decides to read this blog post and chooses to reveal herself, she’s more
than welcome to do that. But, in case she doesn’t want all my readers to know
she freely converses with strangers in such a powerful manner, I won’t tell you
her name.
Our
conversation got me pondering, though.
I
don’t suppose “big girl panties” have to be the kind you imagine your
great-grandmother wearing. (I have to add in that “great” since I’m a
grandmother, myself, and I don’t intend to discuss what my undies look like.)
But,
maybe the symbolic nature of the big, plain white, ugly underwear says
something in itself.
Maybe
it says that life doesn’t always have ruffles or frills, often we might even
feel that life isn’t fun at all. And life definitely isn’t always about being
sexy.
At
some point in life, unlike our dear friend Peter Pan, we need to grow up. Does
that mean we reach a point when life becomes dull and boring and stays that
way? No way! Keep in mind, we change our undergarments daily. Some days are more
frivolous than others. But, as grownups, we become responsible for the actions
we take, frivolous or serious; our mistakes and shortcomings, as well as our
accomplishments and steps forward.
Wearing
our big girl panties implies we’re not going to let life become meaningless and
pointless, because we have the right to say it’s meaningful and to declare that we
have purpose, despite the set-backs, and live like we mean it. God created us
in His image; we have strength and courage we haven’t even tapped into yet.
When
was the last time you felt powerless? Maybe we need to keep a big ol’ pair of
granny panties in the back of our drawer (or in our glove box) as a reminder of
just how powerful we really are. Can we be powerful in a skimpy thong? You
betcha! I’m just pondering the finer points of the phrase!
Sometimes
getting lost is the only way to find a new path home. Sometimes extreme
disappointments or losses reveal the paradigm we’ve been trapped in and can
show us the way out.
Though
the Bible doesn’t literally say it, we’ve all trudged through hard times
remembering, “This too shall pass…”
No
matter how tough life looks, remember the words of the Psalmist: “I shall not die, but live, and declare the
works of the LORD.” – Psalm 118:17 (KJV)
Oh, yeah - this is more like it!
 |
| (picture from limitlessliving.ca) |
