{the deal}

Life is a deal.  It has 3 parts.  One part is the hand you've been dealt.  Genetics & predispositions. Hurts and/or happies you've experienced in your childhood. The next part is the hand you have in your history making.  Personality.  Behavior modifications. Two tiny concepts like attitude & work ethic.  And lastly, the hope He has in you.  For you.  God's grace. His light.  His love.  His fantastic ability to run shop on all your demons and raise the mother grabbin' roof on all your dreams too.  With these 3 parts, you are made whole. Your success and failure rate isn't nearly as important as you think it is.  It's the deal you seek that matters most.  What you're after in the desolate times has to be the same thing you covet in the hallelujah times too.  Your deal.  You pursuit.  Your story.

Equating life to a Lilly Pulitzer dress at Goodwill is a wee bit much don't you think, Meg? Nah. This world runs on all things artificial.  My measly Cheap Thrills Thursday metaphor for life won't knock a dent in this reality TV/instant gratification globe.  Kim Kardashian, you're still #1. Don't you even worry your Kanye West lovin' locks over Meghan's Lilly Pulitzer find.  Rock on, sister. Our world needs more role models like you front and center.  Ahem.

Life is the search for your best deal.  In yourself and in others.  Perhaps that's why Goodwill Hunting is so very therapeutic to me.  I walk into a store full of the forgotten and unwanted. The leftovers.  And it's from there that I create a closet for myself and my family.  I am hunting for possibilities in those under appreciated items.  I am mindful of my best fit and pieces that will express outwardly what I love so much inwardly.  In my home and on my person.  

Deal seeking is not easy either.  It takes hanger after hanger slides on the racks in front of you.  It takes an artful eye for colors that intrigue you and articles that are worthy of a 2nd look or a pull out from the deep back for closer examination.  And that's life to me.  Not easy, yet worth the hunt.

My metaphor?

This Lilly Pulitzer dress was jammed between a rack of winter coats.  Lodged and out of place.  Man, can I relate to that. And I efforted the find. Yes, I pushed the army of wool coats aside. And I eyeballed the interesting variegated pink pattern.  I was the one who spent the time in the sea of forgotten and foreign smells. The damaged and the unwanted.  He was the one who had this gem in my exact size and for $3.99 {1/2 price} at Goodwill. It's goodness. It's dainty 3/4 length RUFFLED sleeves.  It's preciously unique RUFFLED opening in the back for a hook-n-eye closure. It's complete comfort and high end quality.  Yep, that would be Him in me when I do the work.

And He has yet to disappoint me. A 3 part deal that has offered me happy, hellluva hurts, hope, and all kinds of holy finds.  Two of those finds are in the image captured above.  While we all have our own separate parts, the deal is solid.  I kinda like to think there's a Lilly Pulitzer dress out there for us all.  Who knows?  Maybe more than one.  Ahh, I love a metaphor.  I bet Kim does too.

.mac :)