She Wore Red

It often lay there, at the bottom of the special little pocket in Her purse, buried beneath the less cheeky colors.

She shied away from this particular color, it always made too much of a statement. The other colors dressed her in subtlety - no flash, nothing to draw attention...safe and unseen.

To paint Herself in such a flirty color implied many things - It brazenly says, "You can't ignore me! I'm not invisible today!" It doesn't shout, "Don't look at me!" like the pale mauve gloss so often given the poll position on top of the lipstick pile. Red doesn't say, "I'm just a Chapstick kind of girl". It stands upon her skin as a battle cry to the world that would otherwise let her pass unnoticed - it shouts, "You have no idea what you're missing!".

No, Red was not her lipstick of choice.

So, imagine Red's surprise when it was lifted from the bottom of the pile, given a few quick twists to expose the erect shaft of deep ruby pigment, then slid across Her lips, caressing each and every inch of skin.

Hers were not young lips. They'd seen frowns and laughter and an gloriously infinite number of smiles. Red didn't care, they were lips that deserved a day of bold and sassy.

Red vowed to convince Her more days should be spent being noticed. Red wanted Her to know that even 30 years from now, when all the crevasses on her face finally connect, from under her eyes to the tip of her lip line - Red will still be there for her. Everyday can be a red lipstick day!

Today...Red will reign.

Risk Schmisk - Diving into NaBloPoMo

I am the worlds best ignorer. I can ignore things on an epic level.

Clutter? Where? I don't see any clutter.

The cat puked...again...? I don't see anything. 

Oh, you mean THOSE dirty dishes? Where'd they come from?

Then, something comes along that disrupts the force of my superpower and makes me pay attention, like this month's NaBloPoMo. NaBloPoMo is National Blog Posting Month, and the idea is to write a daily blog post for the entire month. On BlogHer, NaBloPoMo is perpetual, like...every month is National Blog Posting Month. Everyone seems to be o.k. with this, despite the fact that BlogHer is also INTERnational.  I totally vote we update the wording on this.

But, I digress....

THIS month's NaBloPoMo theme is RISK.

I was going to post the definition of RISK according to dictionary.com, but damn...someone was having a bad day when they wrote the definitions and was being a total Debbie Downer: risk of war, risk of injury, risk of death. Sheesh, it's like a black hole opened up and sucked out all the happy!

So, I'll define it myself:

Risk - doing something which scares the pants off of you. 

See, Dictionary.com - this is NOT depressing. Terrifying, yes...but NOT a total downer.

I am a huge fan of taking risks. That doesn't always mean I do it myself. I often like reading about risks OTHER people take, especially when they are successful. I don't like reading about risks that end tragically. However, a risk that falls flat on its face, but ends well despite the crash? Yeah, I'm o.k. with those as well.

Are you with me so far?

All of my references to RISK are not physical. When I talk of RISK, I talk about the theoretical - where you remove the barbed wire that prevents you from stepping out of your comfort zone. Once you do, there are perimeter risks. Most of us are comfortable with small risks, posting a blog update daily is one of them. Once you move past that mine field, there are more topics to explore with riskier results - what will my readers think of me if I reveal more of myself? I don't me me, literally...I mean the community of bloggers who write about life in general.

Being genuine is a risk. Telling someone you keep a blog is a risk. Writing about a deep place inside ourselves is a huge risk. Exposing ourselves is a risk (this is one of those risks that is also literal - exposing unmentionable body parts to people on the street is against the law, so think before you  flash).

I attempt to do all of the above with some regularity, except the physical exposure...which I'm sure hubbypants will feel compelled to comment on.

I don't usually  tell people I have a blog. I have my blog link as an automatic signature on my email, but I often erase it when sending email to people I don't know (sometimes, even to people I do know).

I don't know why. It's fear, I suppose. Fear of being thought of as ridiculous, despite my love of all things ridiculous. While I love being wacky, I don't REALLY want people to think I'm a complete wackadoodle. Quirky and randomly whimsical - yes. Bat shit crazy - no.

Of all the risky things I've done in my life, revealing to a stranger that I write a blog shouldn't even be on my RISKY radar. But it is. And, because of this month's NaBloPoMo theme, I've decided to call myself out and face my fear.

I'm taking on the blogging challenge this month - 31 days of blog posts. I'm challenging myself to be less reluctant to share myself with people I don't know. I'll have to RISK being thought of as weird and awkward to some. Perhaps others will think of me as doing the back stroke in a pool of awesome sauce.

NaBloPoMo...here I come!