Taking The Weight Off My Shoulders

Figuratively...

I spent a big part of yesterday finding the information I needed and filling out the disability paperwork.

That one sentence was so quick to write, but the actual doing took quite some time. However, the important thing is that I got it done. Jess took the form to the post office today and mailed it off.

So there’s one weight off my shoulders, figuratively speaking anyway. I've done all I can do; it's out of my hands now.


Literally…

I needed to go to Walmart this morning to pick up a few things for our trip. On the way there I was having a conversation with God along the lines of, “I really need a haircut but I don’t have a lot of time since I’m getting stuff ready to go on this trip to West Virginia. And not all beauticians are familiar with the guidelines for cutting hair for ‘Locks of Love’. But there’s a new salon in Walmart, so if there’s no waiting and if they know what to do, I’ll get my hair cut.”

Now, I try not to make it a practice to “put out the fleece”. I know some people who think it’s a really spiritual thing to do, like it makes you a better Christian, but I can’t agree with that interpretation. Let’s face it, when Gideon put out the fleece, not once, but twice, it wasn’t because he was such a great spiritual leader and so well in tune with God.

No, it was more like he was NOT in tune with God. He was afraid to do what the Lord told him to do, so twice he asked God for a sign to prove God really wanted him to do that particular thing. So to my way of thinking, putting out the fleece isn’t a sign of being highly spiritual.

But as usual, I digress. The point here is the particular requirements I had in mind to get my hair cut and what happened when I got to Walmart.

I went in the salon, and the beautician was just finishing up with someone.
She walked over to me and asked, “What can I do for you today?”
“Do you know how to cut hair for “Locks of Love’?”
“Yes,” says she.
“Then that’s what we’re doing today,” says me.

So there was no wait, and there was someone there that knew what to do. In fact, turns out she knew exactly what to do…. how long to cut the hair, how to band it and bag it. That it must be dry when cut and so on and so forth. She even had a measuring tape handy.

She put a rubber band around my hair, braided it, then cut it. When she made the last snip that dropped the whole braid, my head suddenly felt a lot lighter. There was another weight off my shoulders, literally.

Several times during the process she asked, “Are you okay?” cause she knew it’s a drastic change to whack about 12-inches off your hair. And then she’d say, “You know you’re doing it for a good cause.”

Well, as Paul Harvey would say, “Here’s the rest of the story.” There’s a good reason she’d feel it was for a good cause and that she knew about Locks of Love. She’s a cancer survivor. She lost all her hair during treatment. When it grew back it was a different color and texture. Her eyebrows never did grow back. She no doubt understands the need far better than I do, even if today it was my hair getting chopped off.

But I must admit, it does takes some getting used to having my hair so short. I feel kind of naked, and I can’t twist my hair up on top of my head like I did before. All of a sudden it’s barely shoulder length and hard to get up out of the way.

Still, I’ve decided every time I’d tempted to whine about my short hair, I’m going to remind myself that someday, some little girl who is going through the worst time of her young life will be wearing a hairpiece made with my hair cause she lost all hers.

Makes my troubles seem pretty small.