A lil' help from a friend

As pathetic as this may sound, when it comes to coordinating clothes, I am a functional illiterate. It is for this reason that I stick to what I know (since Garanimals does not have an ‘adult’ line), I wear all solids. And of those solids, I prefer the colors, red, orange, yellow, brown and white. To give you a better understanding of the depths of my patheticness, I stepped inside my closet and took a pic for a visual illustration.

I’m afraid to buy patterns for fear that I’ll pick something that looks hideous on me and I’m petrified that one of my well meaning friends will submit my name to the television show, “What Not to Wear.” So I stick with what’s safe. Red, Orange, Yellow, brown and white.

I happened to share my shortcomings with a close long-suffering friend of mine who promptly took me under her wing as her own personal ‘project,’ plying me with fashion magazines and suggestions on what to wear. She also reached into her own closet to supplement my monochromatic wardrobe, pulling out pieces that if I were to see them on the rack, I’d never give them a second glance.

One of my prayers when I relocated to North Dallas earlier this year was that I would form deep and meaningful relationships with a handful of women, and that these women would be women I could trust, that would hold me accountable, and that they would be women who followed as hard after God (and even harder) as I did. I had one close female friend, but wanted to relieve her of the daily “Novia” burden and find a few more. A couple of weeks ago that prayer was answered through my home team, a place I’d faithfully (and uncomfortably attended) over the past couple of months.

A couple months ago, I joined a new home team where I slowly began to meet and make new friends. Although it’s a bit hard to believe, I was petrified to go by myself to someone’s house and sit with a bunch of people I’d never met. That’s just not my style. I avoid those situations like I avoid my bathroom scale on “I feel fat” days. But I continued to attend every meeting faithfully.

In that small group I met three amazing women. God placed in my path, a recent college graduate who although she is incredibly beautiful and presents herself as a confident woman, struggles daily with some pretty wicked issues. He added to the college graduate a school teacher who graduated from a state college that I’d rather not mention on my blog for fear that uttering the name would sully the upstanding reputation this blog carries. When I first met her, her gentle and quiet demeanor made me immediately mark her off my list as a potential ‘running mate,’ because I knew I’d never be able to relate to her on any level. And then to show he really has a great sense of humor, he adds to my rag tag group of confidants, a Cajun who when I heard her testimony of what God has done in her life just in the last year, I shake my head in amazement that she’s still standing upright and breathing.

Each one of these women, I’d never have thought I’d be close friends with, but only God could orchestrate such a coming together of four people with such different backgrounds, yet such similar stories. Had I had my druthers, I probably wouldn’t have shared my story with any of them, but it just so happened that one asked another and that other asked another, and we all ended up together around a table one evening. Four misfits that the more we got to know each other, we found out fit perfectly together when joined by God.

Today, I wore a PURPLE PATTERNED top that one of my precious confidants farmed from her own closet and surprisingly enough, it looked GREAT on me! I guess when it comes to clothes, I’ll have to rely on my friends. And when it comes to divine guidance in all things, I’ll continue to rely on God.