Mental wardrobe

Idaho winters are typically wet, snowy and stone cold. The only way I make it through is having a good winter coat. However, shopping for a coat overwhelms me—I go back and forth between severe function and whimsical fashion.  I’m so glad my husband has this sixth sense and can pick the perfect coat for me. He uses simple criteria: it needs to be warm, water-proof and when I put it on, I still look like a woman.

Proof positive that he picked a great coat for me was after I wore it, I received many compliments. The plum inner shell really popped within the wintry, glossy white outer shell.

One comment that I heard the most was “I could never wear a white coat, I’d be too afraid it would get stained up.”

I never considered the color of the coat to be a deterrent for wearing it. However, I had to admit this coat was the only item of white clothing I had recently. I do tend to steer clear of white clothes, believing it would somehow be a magnet for stains.

I made a conscious decision to stop avoiding white clothes.  In fact, I purposing bought a sparkling white sweater. When I wore it, I consciously swept out any thoughts that I could get it dirty. I reasoned if I did get a stain, it was machine washable, so why worry?

This got me to thinking what a great metaphor for life—how many times do we hesitate trying something new because we’re scared to mess up?  Do we focus on what could happen, that it hinders us to enjoy the here and now? Also, do we let our past mistakes stain our future, instead of letting them wash off?  Maybe it’s time to change our mental wardrobe.