Hanna LaShay ~ Day4 (Birthday Thanks)

Birthday Thanks is a 31 day countdown blog challenge focusing on people who have influenced, shaped, affected and changed my life leading up to my birthday on August 13th. My birth was awesome but my ALMOST 28 years of living has been enhanced by the people I’ve met along the way.

Today, I’m grateful for my thirteen year old sister Hanna. Hanna, in a world where we do away with gender norms and where we seek balance in feminine and masculine energy and where women want to show & prove that they are just as strong, intelligent and powerful as men, you teach me one simple yet profound thing. Its more than okay to take delight in all things girly. I’m all for equality but I like that you’re into glitter and glitz and glam and feathers and boas and heels and fancy dresses and drinking mere water out of a martini glass. You teach me that not only is balance key, but learning to be okay with whatever delights you is also okay. That’s a valuable lesson and I’m grateful that you’ve never apologized for what pleases you. I hope that’s an experience everyone gets to have. I hope everyone gets to feel joyful about their passions and not guilty. I wish we’d stop apologizing for what we want and how we feel. You never do that and it inspires me.

It takes you ten minutes to put on lip gloss. You take your sweet time running the gloss over your bottom lip, over and over and over again. Then you stop, stare at yourself and you kind of smirk. Then you do it to your top lip. You purse your lips together, smush them, add a little more gloss and you look at your masterpiece. Rather than view this as narcissistic, I think this is more about your passion to live a sensual life. You love the feel of that gloss. You love how it smells and how it looks and you make no apology for taking ten minutes to delight in that gloss. This is an important lesson for me Hanna. It teaches me not to rush. It teaches me to take full pleasure in every moment. I’ve heard that you can spend hours in the bathroom taking a long, bubble bath. Literally, I’ve heard family members say you will spend all day just soaking your skin and trying out your latest smell good shower gel. You like to sit and bask in your glory. This is a good thing Hanna. There are many people that seek to belittle us. People want us to be smaller. They want us to dim our lights and squelch our desires. There are people that want us to be bland with no personality and they want us to take two minutes showers never even stopping to feel the water against our skin. And you, dear, wonderful, diva child, you teach me to take long bubble baths and to slowly eat my food and to be more patient with my hair and to actually enjoy being a human.

You see, some people might say the lip gloss or bubble baths don’t matter because we’re spiritual beings and really we should be meditating or feeding the homeless or experiencing enlightenment and I don’t think that’s the only way to exist. I think there’s a reason our spirits were put in bodies. It’s about being present, connecting and living. You do that Hanna. I see it every time I see you and it teaches me to simply let you be and to give myself a little more room to do that too.

Hanna, you’re incredible in so many ways and I’ve learned so many amazing things from you. Today, however, I’m most grateful that you teach me to enjoy all my girly bits. I must admit, if it is the right shade of pink, sometimes I do actually like it.

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