Card of the Month (July 2013)
Charmaine Chartreuse Be Yourself “Centered in the heart, Chartreuse stands out regardless of popular opinion,” (tori Hartman) What do you do when your preferences don’t match those of the people around you? When you want to do something that goes against the grain of what others want? When you’re just feeling out of place? Do you drop what you desire, preferring to go along with the crowd? Do you follow your own inner wisdom? How do you find a middle ground? These are hard questions because they involve difficult choices about the balance between our relationships with others and our own priorities. But, in the fable, at least for the character of Charmaine Chartreuse, the resolution was simpler than you might expect. What color do you think she had the family mansion painted? What color do you think she chose to wear a fair amount of the time? Do you think she is called Charmaine chartreuse because she didn’t want to stand out? That is, you couldn't miss the mansion, and you couldn't miss Charmaine. As she walked around town, she’d stand for hours without explanation observing the fruit seller without buying. She'd go to the clothing store every day to check out the same scarf, which she'd finally buy at the end of each week. And the nails she got done at the local hair salon were the longest and most colorful in town! Needless to say, Charmaine was pretty misunderstood, and there was considerable gossip. How if at all could Charmaine have done things differently? How, especially since it turned out that what she was doing was painting some pretty wonderful pictures of what she observed, could she have tried to interact more in a way that people understood. At the same time, isn't there a part of you that wouldn't mind following her example? A part that might want to be just a little outrageous, or just take a couple of small steps outside the norm? Charmaine might leave us with a bit of an extreme example, but her story serves as encouragement to go, even in a small way, for something you really want. Be bolder? Be more "out there?" Be more you? What do you think of Charmaine and the actions she chose to take? What’s one thing you could do this week to build (or steer away from) her example??
1 Comment
|
AuthorSally Archives
August 2015
Categories |