Embracing Hippy-dom

i just succumbed to the shaving process again- my underarms and legs, that is. it was so long and beautiful but my preconceived notion of societal pressure wore me down with this warm, shorts weather.

plus, grant was kind of freaked.

i with i could get to a place of confidence where i could embrace that granola part of myself and not feel self-conscious.

i was a very prissy little girl...just ask my mother or see the pictures. matchy-matchy, giant hair bows, sleeping in curlers for kindergarten, the whole shebang. but as i got older it became less important for me to match my underwear to my outerwear and more important for me to find comfort in my own skin.

then i started going to concerts and missions work and even later having my babies with help from midwives. see the connection?

at these concerts there was always the group of grungy hippies off to the side, girls in long handmade skirts, dreaded hair pushed bag with a bandanna, barefoot, tank tops with sewn on patches. in the mission field i found women going natural as a necessity and at times to fit in with their surrounding culture. and then i met a mid-wife in training when i was pregnant with zola who embodied total hippy-dom- brewing sun tea in ball jars, giving second hand books as birthday presents, long hair, gentle spirit, beautiful. and she had the most amazing arm pit hair i've ever seen. (please don't feel embarrassed for me that i just admitted that, i'm not! it was seriously amazing!) and it was so soft! she hugged me one day while wearing a sleeveless shirt and if felt like the softest blanket imaginable was on my arm.

and i must add in, linda. the first woman i knew, loved, respected and admired who was a wife and mom in a generally uptight community who didn't shave and was okay with it. gives me hope of being a hippy within streamlined culture.

i've been through the princess woman phase of delicate jewelry and pearl earrings. i've worn ann taylor business attire and panty hose for work. i own a very traditional little black dress. i did the college-age jeans and a t-shirt thing for a while. i've been down the traditional maternity-wear route. and the post-pregnancy i can only fit into sweatpants and my husband's t-shirts routine.

and while these were all personality off-shoots of who i was at the time, i think it's time to ring in my season of the hippy.

i'm ready to try it on and see how it fits me.

i'm so glad my ever-consistent husband loves me because i can't commit to anything (except for him and my daughters) and not in spite of it.

A recent photo of me i like to call: Emily of the Barn.



And a little shout out to Jen over at Raising a Green Family for posting first and giving me the confidence to confess all of this hairy mess. Glad we are friends.