BLACK & WHITE, DARK & LIGHT.
HEY ANGELS!! So many apologies for my recent silence. My life has been a patchwork of writing dissertations, planning weddings & enjoying the London sunshine!!
But,Today I wanted to share a fast thought & a quick look.
DARKNESS & LIGHT
Amidst darkness pours forth light. In unexpected habitats, beauty is hidden & thrives. In desolate lands, streams flow and new life flourishes.
My heart pursues beauty. As love & goodness chases me, I chase things that are true and beautiful & lovely. And amongst the pursuit, I'm convinced that I'm pursued back.
Let me explain.
I'm looking for a word which isn't deprived. But the only word that fits or resembles what I see is depravation. I work in an area which is pretty riddled with social disease, substance abuse & violence. And physically the overflow of this is physical rubbish. The streets are piled high with overflowing dumpsters, odorous black bin liners & the previous nights debris is scattered everywhere. If there's green space, it's probably got a broken television, a mattress or two and some form of dangerous waste ( sharps, needles, you name it.)
The surroundings reflect the social deprivation of the area, and it floods into the surroundings. Brokenness percolates & penetrates the environment.
I pass through this every day I go to work. I have a little route, behind a couple of buildings and over a small railway bridge. I'm accustomed to this route & nothing appears out of the ordinary when I pass through this way. And like most, I'm a creature of habit. A fragment of my habit is that, I pray over my day as I take my walk to work.
Except this particular day. This day I prayed. Which wasn't unusual. My route was the same. Everything was the same. Except it wasn't. It was different. This time as I passed through bags of domestic waste, and looked at gardens filled with rubble & junk, something caught my eye. Something halted my auto-pilot journey.
A rose garden.
A garden abounding in pink, white, yellow and red roses arrested my attention. I'm a girl. Thus, a sucker for flowers, double thus, A LOVER OF ROSES. And this wasn't just any rose garden, an perfect arch sat in the middle, and an overflowing amount of bushes of delectable roses in bloom. It was truly beautiful. I stood for a few moments just to take it in. How on earth had I never seen this before ? Hidden amidst darkness and rubble, bloomed a beautiful rose garden. A rest for a weary land.
A short thought for today. A reminder of the beauty hidden in the barrenness. A pointer to the joy somewhere deeply embedded in grief, in tears & seasons of struggle. A rose garden. Light in the darkness. Light that shall not & can not be overcome.
If you don't look, you'll never see. You might just miss the rose garden, and what a shame that would be. XX
BLACK & WHITE
And ABOUT MY OUTFIT... Well, we all know that all-black was never a problem. Head to toe in one colour, has been a massive trend for the past few years, and WHAT IS NOT TO LOVE?! So simple, yet, so effective (alas, if all things in life were so easy to execute well). Basically pick a colour. And commit to it. I picked black. Starting with a set of formal wide leg dungarees I picked up a few months ago! They're from Warehouse, and you can wear 'em with a tee underneath to appreciate their full dungaree glory, or alternatively you can throw a light jumper over and just have a nice silky pair of wide leg trousers, like I did! I bloody love them actually, and recently re-found them! I forgot that they're great with sneakers & also cute with mules, or other heels, as pictured!!
Let's just revisit that word for a brief moment... RE-FOUND my personal definition is: "WHEN YA FIND YA NEW FAVE OLD THING, then proceed to not stop wearing it for a week until you replace it and forget about it again; to be re-found again in the near future." Let's be real, we all have re-finds. They bless our lives for 7 days, then they're destined to be lost & re-found again in a few months time... I've recently been clearing out loads of my old clothes and (new clothes I forgot about) to prepare for the arrival of all of JD's belongings in summer. And I have been graced by many the great re-find. SO HAPPY RE-FINDING SISTERBABES.
Anyway, back to the outfit. Leather jacket. Missguided & perfect in every way (in my eyes at least...). A nice faux leather, soft & well fitted. A veritable legend in my wardrobe. You'll probably be peeling me out of a leather jacket on my death-bed. (This is the one that I'm wearing )
The handbag, OH THIS LITTLE CUTIE. A studded, cross over number I bought just a few weeks ago from Zara, it was a gift from me, to me, to say ' You completed your dissertation pet, should you fail your assignment, you still have a great new bag'. Check it here babes!
The lip colour. So, with one-colour outfits, accessories/and or a statement lip colour can really add that pop your outfit needs to come to life. I chose the studded bag, as a bit of a feature & then of course this lovely lip colour by Bobbi Brown, 'Bright Poppy'. As gifted to me by my gorgeous sissy butt Megan!! And available here.
And that's it angels. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it, John 1:5. Peace out my beauties, all my love HF XX