Imagination

Never give up; and never, under any circumstances, no matter what - never face the facts.

Ruth Gordon, American actress (1896-1985)

Little snow that we got last night, melted quickly by early afternoon under the typical Northwest rain. With objectively cold and wet weather and objectively short days, it is more and more challenging to find time for outdoor photo shoots. And our facing north cottage is objectively dark and quite objectively cramped for glamorous photos. Those are just plain facts, right? Right. They are discouraging, but objective, right? Right. I must face them, right? Wrong. I'm definitely not the one who stares in the face of reality. 

Too often we hear the facts that are discouraging, gloomy and even depressing. We think, "But those are facts - we can't hide from them. We must be brave, and we must be smart, and we must face the facts. Our parents faced the facts, and their parents faced the facts, and their parents also faced the facts, so it must be the right thing to do." 

Says who?

I could write a long list of "objective facts" about my life that are discouraging, gloomy and even depressing. 

I wasn't born yesterday. I lived a little, I did stuff, I fell down a few times, I was laughed at a few times, and from time to time, for over a quarter of a century, I've been told how naive is my way of thinking. 

 Well, it works for me. I figured out a long time ago that if I don't like the facts, I can choose not to face them. And then I did just that. I've done it with so many things that I'd be writing for hours if I started listing all the times when I did not face the facts and just went on to do my own thing. 

I've done it with little things like getting the stuff I wanted, and with bigger things, like places to live, education, relationships, jobs, health, vocation. If I didn't like the facts, I just imagined something I would like.

So that day, when I wanted to have a photo shoot, but there were no preferable conditions available to me, I also did not face the facts. Why would I? Justin and Anya had just tided up our living room, and we decided to give it a try and use the little natural light that we get in the cottage for an improvised photo shoot.

And I love the result! 

I am wearing this imaginative dress by Beth Ditto that I recently purchased (on clearance) that is pure silk and made in the US. The dress has a fun bubble shape and can be worn with a belt, without one, and sort of half-way belted. They call this pattern "Eat Your Make-Up". I'll admit that I didn't eat mine - but I used sparkly green eye-shadow to emphasize the festive mood of the dress, and of course red lipstick, my best friend.

It is up to us to decide, whether to face the facts or not. If we insist on facing the facts, nothing would stop us from doing just that - not one force in the universe. But if the facts that we are asked to face don't bring joy to our heart, if they don't put our mind at ease, if they don't make us genuinely happy - then we can choose not to face them. We can choose to imagine something better and face it instead.

Dress - Beth Ditto

Pumps - Sam Edelman (old)

1st jewelry set (neutral) - gift from the sweet and stylish Elle

2nd set of jewelry (gold and blue glass) - Chico's (old)

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