Categories: uncategorized
Date: 03 August 2006 09:54:49
It has been noticed in some quarters that the loud, brash young lady with the impossible laugh, with DM boots, leather jacket, skirts that on some occassions really didn't cover the back end properly over stripey tights and t-shirts with interesting political slogans who would climb over the chairs to get out of church on a Sunday morning, sit with her DMs on the chair & frequently get a little the worse for wear at socials has changed.
In her place there is a slightly older woman who may still wear DM's, but less frequently; who is quieter and laughs a little less loudly, who can handle wine and knows the meaning of moderation, who normally dresses in jeans or long skirt with a stretchy M&S top, occassionally accompanied by a smart jacket and who may occassionally slip her feet onto the chair or backside onto the floor but generally just sits in the same way as the rest of the congregation.
Is it aging, growing up, a growing spiritual maturity?- these are all explanations which have been given to her. Well I think that the list given may come into it, but it's more the fact the older woman has more confidence in just being. They both suffer from shyness and the former a fear of rejection - feeling the easy option was to invite it . The second is no longer scared of rejection in the same way, (although it still lurks somewhere within). There is an inner confidence which enables her to say this is who I am, me; you may label me as you wish: "divorced", "single parent", "woman", and more but I am simply me, a child of God, created in His image. This confidence also allows her the freedom to quietly be wrong, to question and to sometimes not believe the "official" version.