Hypocrite

      Yesterday, I was justifying to my friend why I didn't want to buy myself new clothing. These were my very reasonable sounding reasons:
-"You shouldn't buy more clothing until you lose more weight? I mean, you ARE losing, AREN'T YOU?"
-"Nobody makes clothing that looks good on my body"
-"These styles don't flatter me."
-"I'll buy myself new things when I've reached my goals" (in all reality, this means, when I'm perfect.)
-"I don't go anywhere outside of work. I just sit and sew everyday, all day long. I don't NEED nice clothes...I guess unless I want to wear high heels and a fancy blouse to the gym!"

         Then, I realized, to my utter HORROR, that these are the exact same reasons that people give when they're talking themselves out of a corset! Now, mind you, it actually doesn't happen very often, but generally, this is how the exchange goes. Woman comes into booth. Michelle is excited to meet new person, tries to get to know them. Michelle laces woman into corset that will enhance her coloring, body shape, and personality. Woman looks into mirror and DOESN'T automatically criticize what she sees! Praise the Lord!  Then, the excuses start coming. "Well...I really shouldn't until I lose more weight" (I DO hope you all realize that I do alterations all the dang time. I'm up to altering about 10-15 corsets a WEEK for the customers that have lost weight!), "I don't have anywhere I could possibly wear this" (I'm standing in front of you, wearing a corset at a renaissance festival. You came to the festival to have fun. You know what could enhance your experience?),  "I'm going to wait until.....*insert thing here*."

       I know this is coming off as me being critical, and I promise, the tone of this blog is for me to say, "Holy face!! These women are coming into my life so that they can help ME see MYSELF more clearly, and hopefully, in turn, I can help them!"  What a blessed gift!!!  And you know, it's so easy for me to look at this woman making these excuses and think, "What in the potty words is she talking about? She is SO beautiful, and SO vibrant, and has SO many possibilities and SO much potential!  Why would she settle for any less that epic? Why would she put conditions on when she will be able to be kind to herself? What???"

       I promise, I'm learning to say the same things to myself. It's re-programming 29 years of mental habit, so I hope you will be patient, and I, in turn, will be more patient and loving to you....because that's what we all need. Love and acceptance.