20 January 2009

dawn

Arise, you who slumbers.
Oh you who sleeps, awake.
It is dawn, oh silent one.
Let your voice be heard. Let your light shine.
For a new day is born.

Dormant dreams, find wings.
From ashes, rise up.
From death, arise.
Fly. Soar.
For a new day is born.

From pain. From dust.
Oh, pearl. Come forth.
Rise up. Choose life.
Hope and dream and love once again.
For a new day is born.

Yesterday is gone. Today is anew.
Dream. Dream again.
Hope. Hope again.
Love. Love again.
For a new day is born.

Hear not that which you once heard.
See not that which you once saw.
Let that which was spoken be your guide
Then feel and burn and breathe once again.
For a new day is born.

Arise.
Awake.
Speak up.
Shine bright.
Rise up. Rise up.
For a new day is born.

10 January 2009

shampoo

After years of damage, of trying to make my hair something it was never purposed to be, it was broken.

I pressed it. I curled it. I straightened it. I processed it. I cut it.
And then came the ever important moment: the decision. Eventually I had no choice but to capitulate, to give my hair some room to breath and to heal and to be what it was meant to be. The salve followed: first Cathy, then Ed, then L'Oreal Professional Absolut Repair.

For the last few years, I have used my product faithfully, and my hair has been nurtured back to health. It has been redeemed. Restored. Transformed. The damage of the past is in the past, and it has been replaced with
brilliance, vitality and hope. Yet, I have continued to repair.

I have committed to health. I continue to make good choices. I am willing to do the necessary work to sustain and maintain. I visit Ed every seven weeks, and I invest in my product - Absolut Repair - when the time to restock returns. Still, I have continued to repair.

But when I visited Ed last October, he, like I, was out of Absolut Repair. I knew I couldn't leave his chair empty handed, so I sought his counsel for an alternative. I was open, and he provided. L'Oreal Professional Age Densiforce.

I hadn't purposed to procure Age Densiforce, but thankfully Ed was out of what I went to receive. Thankfully, I had determined to receive. I was unable and unwilling to leave empty-handed. I needed more shampoo, so I have washed my hair with Age Densiforce ever since.

As I digested the words on the bottle of my "density-enhancing" shampoo for the first time this morning -- "this shampoo leaves hair feeling renewed with more body and radiance for a more youthful appearance..." (and that's just the shampoo! Don't get me started on my conditioner... ahem... density-enhancing masque) --
that my hair has never looked or felt or been better. My new shampoo is not designed to repair, but to fortify and to give body, color and shine.

This is not about shampoo.

What once was is no longer. Yet, I... you... we continue to repair; we are trying to fix that which is no longer broken. Yesterday's manna will not suffice for today. Yesterday's manna will not suffice for today. It is time to move forward, to move beyond, to move ahead. Yes, we will always remember. We must ALWAYS remember the lessons of yesterday, which were instrumental in shaping who we are and who we will become, but we are destined to become stagnant if we continue to live on the milk of our infancy.

Today is a new day. Stop repairing, and move on. Do away with the product of the past and be renewed. Open your mind and your heart and your hair to receive a fresh, new density-enhancing, Omega-6 enriched shampoo.
And then, radiate.