Me and her have never really gotten into details about my illness but she’s one of the few who have made their support known from the time that I found out about the cancer. Anyways this blog is not about that. It is about new beginnings and the courage to give ourselves a clean slate.
For some the decision to shave off all your hair may seem insignificant but I think it is a big deal. I for one have never had the guts to shave off all my hair, not even when my mother passed away and it was expected of me culturally to have it shaved off as a sign of mourning. I didn’t need to have a bald head to show that I was hurting or that I was in mourning, I reasoned with myself and my elders but the truth is, I would have died if I had to follow through on that.
How would I look? I don’t exactly have the best looking head around. I just couldn’t imagine myself walking around with no hair and God forbid the cancer ever got to that stage where I start losing my hair; I would probably stop at some Cosmetics store for a wig before I went to hospital. So for me, whenever I see a woman walk around bald, it just means that person has guts.
I don’t know whether it was an easy decision to make for her but I admire her courage. In that simple conversation when she sent me the picture, I was reminded of a few lessons we all need to keep in mind as we go on about the business of life. I want to share with you what I remembered when I looked at my beautiful friend and her bald head.
1. Courage. The ability to do what feels right for us despite how others may interpret it. Courage is being prepared to do you, even if the rest of the world will not agree with it, it is choosing to stand out and not be sucked in by confirming to societal norms.
2. Selflessness. Doing for others what is not expected of us when we not even going to gain anything from it. It is knowing that doing for others is not something only the rich and privileged do, that with what we have, wherever we are, we are able to touch the lives of others. That no matter how small or insignificant the gesture seems, to someone else it may be the world.
And lastly, what I took from this picture and the conversation with my friend was that, a new beginning is not tied to a specific time of the month, like the first of a new month. No matter how far along in the wrong direction we had travelled, anytime, any day, any moment we had the power to change direction. To not only acknowledge our flaws and dwell in them but to learn from them and use them to give ourselves a clean slate, a new break, a clean page……….instead of feeling stuck and wishing things were different, we could decide to start today to live the life we always wanted. Every second, every breath……is a chance to start over. A new beginning is always within reach.
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