How do you stay professional during the winter season? As I've mentioned earlier Mr. E and I made a move 3 months ago. We moved from small town to city. Many might see Winnipeg as a drab boring city, but as always I like to find beauty in a seemingly ugly thing. For starters we have this wonderful old stone church right by our place. Right now, I'm sitting in a cozy coffee shop that is just a quick walk from our house. So this city definitely has it perks. My job I got a few weeks after moving required being dressed up. I had no problem with that! But it can be a challenge being professional looking when it's cold and you just want to wear comfy cozy things.
Here it's a comfy dressy black sweater with a dark green tea length pencil skirt. It's a soft stretchy material, so quite warm as well. Pair the outfit with heels and your good to go. I love the balance of looser tops and fitted bottoms. You can make this skirt more dressed up by wearing a blouse and blazer instead of the sweater.
I just watched a beautiful piece by Lindsey Stirling where she’s playing “Hallelujah” on her violin in a bus station and no one really takes time to listen and appreciate the beauty of her music. She has such talent and yet she didn’t dress up so people would notice her. She looked happy though, that she could make the beautiful music no matter if people saw her. It just hit me and I cried. (I'm always prone to crying just after a massage treatment though! :) But I’m realizing that I can go from feeling excited and having a lot of purpose and potential to feeling like an absolute waste of time in a short time.
I lost a job recently and I'm realizing that I like to be defined by the job that I have. It's hard to start something new. And I'll be honest right now I don’t feel that people are seeing the beauty in me. I have nothing left to impress people with. I’m done looking good for others. I'm not really sure where my life is going right now. None of my dreams really seem possible at all. I really don’t know what I have to offer anymore. I don’t feel like a very strong person. I stress out before I can accomplish anything. Anyone ever felt this way? Anyway, this is how I was feeling in the moment.
But I’m sitting here thinking… Is it really about me? It's Christmas and for the first time I’m thinking about Jesus our Saviour. This is the time we celebrate him where he offered himself as a gift to us. He sees the beauty in me when I can’t.
I don’t have a special talent. I don’t play music beautifully or have lots of money. But I can do a lot of things. I can apply makeup. I can bake. I can see beauty in clothes, in rooms, in people’s faces. I can encourage. I can love and give grace. I have the gift of honesty and refreshment. I am beauty. Why don’t I focus on giving this Christmas. Not in impressing others. Not in competing for the best job. Not in comparing myself to others. Why don’t I take the focus off myself and start seeing others around me. Yes I have experienced pain and unfairness in my life. I may not be totally healed from that. I may not be the strongest healthiest person out there. But what’s the use in holding back because of that. What’s the point in wallowing in self pity and trying to get attention. I can start sitting back and looking at the world through the eyes of the One that came to bring beauty. That came to love the unloveable… that came to bring hope to the humble and to the proud… to the poor and to the rich… to the bums and to successful people… He came to bring hope to a girl that has known Him all her life, but has felt disconnected through all the pains, twists and turns in her life… She’s not poor neither is she rich… there doesn’t seem to be anything super special about her… but He came for her too and He knows her pretty deeply. And He loves her pretty deeply. In fact if she or anyone really knew how significant His love was for them, they would probably not feel worried or stressed, or depressed or hopeless or bored. There would be a light in their eyes… brilliance in their face, and a quickness to their step. The music would change…the world would start to brighten. The sick would get out of bed, the dead begin to rise. The depressed would start to sing and the proud would fall to their knees. There would be joy in the city, for the Saviour has come to earth! He is real.
So here I am. It’s time to humble myself and look through the eyes of Love and stop worrying about my job or about me. I want to start giving. Of myself. I might not be doing anything different on the outside, but the attitude would be completely different - the reason why I do things. If I do it to give to the world instead of making me look good could make a difference. Wow! Why have I never thought of that before!
So there is my little Christmas revelation and hope it encourages you. Have a very Magical and Merry Christmas!
