Life Lessons in Clothing Heaps

I looked in my closet a couple of days ago for something dashing, unique, highly professional, and edgie to wear. Of course it had to make me look 10 pounds thinner and 10 years younger. The deeper I went the more dismayed I became. I looked around my clothing heaps and came to some philosophical conclusions about myself. I did find something to wear – but by 9:00 AM I was wondering how I could escape and buy a new outfit before anyone else sees me….

Lesson #1 – Don’t wear your depression. It’s too depressing.
I have a large heap of too-big clothing, mostly dark and drab. It helps me hide when I feel guilty, unworthy, like a failure or I let someone down that I highly respect…such as the boss, or the daughter, or the hubby or the….well all of them. So I wear my frumpiness because it helps me maintain my attitude. You see, I am generally a cheerful person and holding on to depression or a grudge takes a LOT of effort for me. Clothes do help – but eventually my logical side wins and off they go to the back of the closet.

Lesson #2 – Discipline takes more than a little black dress waiting for me to fit into it.
My favorite heap is all the clothes I’m gonna wear! They are colorful and perfect fitting (on somebody about one size smaller than I). They all have their tags. My brain knows better than to be derailed from its eating interests for a cheap trick like a little black dress – but my emotional buying side keeps trying. I have been disciplining myself a little better these days….but it take a lot of work and definitely prayer. (You know – better body beat up my booty campy-d-camp)

Lesson #3 – Planning is important in all aspects of life
My second favorite heap is my unplanned buying pile. It is a bunch of good buys and nice fits that don’t match each other. Somehow none of them go together and they were all such a good buy I hate to spend money on something that matches because then the good buy part is lost! I pick one out now and then and try it with this or that. I can always tell when I fail. I walk into work and everyone gives me the once over but politely says nothing…except Jen – she is as honest as they come. God bless that one!

Lesson # 4- There is value in the same-old.
My last heap (worth mentioning) is the same-old stuff I wear every week. I have no fancy jewelry or matching shoes! Oh my goodness! Shoes…that is another disaster for me. My daughter has tons of shoes…she probably wouldn’t have picked many of them but they have all lied to me in the store – saying, “Pick me! I am easy to wear; I match everything and I am comfortable too!” I don’t keep liars in my closet! Back to the clothes heap….. once in a while in a shopping moment you make music with your selection. You wear it week after week and know that if nothing else will do you can always wear it. Some of these are all worn out – but you hide the stain, safety pin the rip and hope nobody notices the fading because you just like the same-old outfit. There is comfort in knowing an outfit well – how it behaves in public, in the cold, in the rain, when you are hot and sweaty, when the wind blows.

So, what do your clothes tell you? What have you learned?