Solidarity: A Purple Day

The word solidarity came strongly to mind last week as I was applying shades of purple eye shadows to compliment the purple top I wore that day.  I was dressing in purple for a reason. The impetus was admiration for a girl I had never met in person, rather through her mother and others, I feel like I know her. Her name: Victoria.

Though Victoria had no vision to distinguish colors she did understand colors, and particularly the color purple. To Victoria a purple day meant an unusually happy or good day. For her to state, “It’s a Purple Day!” was to express her joy-filled delights.  Last week would have been her 19th earthly Birthday, which she celebrated from Heaven.

purple sunset

So last week, on January 22, 2015, her birthday, I wore purple to celebrate Victoria’s life but also as a show, or type of solidarity. Almost a week out, I keep ruminating on the word. It isn’t the prettiest word, like words that I usually choose to let roll around in my mind just because I like them. But it is a word of importance.

When you read solidarity you may be thinking of a union, a union movement, an ethnic group, or a more radical group of sorts. But I am thinking of it a bit differently from the norm. The common definition:

Solidarity is unity (as of a group or class) that produces or is based on unities of interests, objectives, standards, and sympathies.*

Sometimes hearing the word solidarity makes me think of a closed group. One I may not fit into. One where being on the outside leaves a feeling of exclusion. But I have a different thought. I raise the word for solidarity to be universal and freely lent to others—all may join in.  All can show support for one another!

How many times might we come alongside a person (in person, online, in social media) to say, “Hey, I am here, I am with you in this. I may not get it all, but I am here, none the less!” I tend towards this kind of living the older I get. I am free from wondering if it is okay to raise the solidarity flag. I can stand with those I know well and total strangers, and I can do so without casting a judging eye that says, “No one else is welcome here.”  This is a good and generous way to live—to find or stumble upon those who just need to know someone cares, has their back, has been there before—and that they are not being judged, they are cared about, etc.

Can I start a solidarity movement of this sort? Do you want to join it with me? If you do, I think it will be a Purple Day!

* http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/solidarity, http://www.thefreedictionary.com/solidarity

(My friend, Alisha Charles, mother of Victoria, is writing a book which you will want to read and/or hear her speak about. She also has a website, still not fully built, with the domain name: ItsaPurpleDay.com. You will be hearing more from me in the future about all of this.)

Don’t Be A Bean Counter

BeanCounters11

The other day I was thinking about how I have a strong tendency to give things away as soon as I get them. This has translated to concepts and revelations, epiphanies and the like as social media’s influence tempts us to “think” in posts, blogs, tweets, etc. And so I was pondering how I need to adjust my responses accordingly.

Just after thinking on that compulsion in need of correction, I had the idiom come to mind: “Don’t be a bean counter.” Hmm, strange yet it seemed pronounced and possibly like a God message. So, I considered the meaning and decided to consult with my friend Google on it. (One thing that God knows about me is that I am very curious when it comes to words and sayings, I often go about hunting for them like a lost two carat diamond.) As I was assured I understood the meaning of the phrase I thought, “…hmm, shall I write something about it?”

And then I remembered my previous pondering and considered, “Maybe not. Maybe it’s for you, Annette.”

A bean counter is usually attributed to an astute and obsessive accountant or one doing such work. It also has references to doing meaningless things that consume time without much reward.

I am a cross between being a laissez-faire, laid back type and a “getter-done” revolutionary type. I know I always, and I mean always have something to do—some kind of work, organizing, my own concept developing, or at least cooking, cleaning, yard work, etc. Most of you do as well.

Yet, I am at a new place. A place that says, “let’s do what is important, skip some of the bean counting, and give myself permission to just be, to dream, to think,  etc. And, by doing so I believe I will actually be more productive and a greater creative force in my work.

This year I want to bust out a bunch of things. I LOVE MY WORK! I love getting to help people bump out their dreams and visions in conceptual and practical ways. But a person needs time to chill as well.

I’ve mentioned this before, but it is a good thing to take in particular information every day, like solid news, what’s happening in one’s industry, things that inspire, the Word of God, etc. But it is equally as important to take time to think, pray, listen, and dream—and to allow yourself to do something with what comes forth from those meditative times.

Without an excess of hours to do so, like we may imagine the great thinkers such as Plato, lazing around pondering thoughts through to completion, thinking his big mathematical thoughts, presenting and debating, etc.–you may ask, “How, or when?”

How about if we go grab some beans, count out 1,440 and see how many we can gift to ourselves, to dream, think, be still, pray, and listen.

Black, pinto, kidney, garbanzo, or ?—I suggest dried, not canned.