Grandma gets a Piercing

Shifts happen. An old NLP saying that often hits home unexpectedly. Sometime in the fall of 2009 during an evening with the 'kids' (all adults, of course, but forever 'kids' in my heart) I mentioned innocently that I was thinking of getting my nose pierced, had been thinking of it for several years and had decided that maybe this was exactly the right year to jump right in and do it! Why not, I questioned? When you're on a fast train to 61, you can pretty much do whatever you want I averred out loud. Shift to Christmas, 2009. Recipient of a gift certificate to Koi Piercing for said piercing and 'jewel' of my choice from adult child & partner. Gulp. Was I ready? Was it significant? Did it matter? Should I actually do it? And how much really would it hurt? These thoughts swirled - okay, chugged and sloshed - through my mind at random times throughout the entire 2010 year. Yes. No. Why would I? Why wouldn't I? Then I conveniently lost the certificate. Opps, guess I can't go through with it now. Guilt at having wasted a certificate. Guilt at not following my initial desire to go through with it or having consciously decided not to at all.

Oh the struggle. 2011 looms near - certificate set to expire. Then, first granddaughter is born. Little Lucia Blue, first child of the givers of the gift certificate. Thinking about the immensity of another life that was actually part of my child - of me - struck me in so many ways. Some ways were petty and trivial and somewhat silly. Some deep with a depth almost frightening, the seriousness of bringing another life into this world. The responsibility. The joys. If I could give any gift at all to little Lucia, and to all my adult 'kids' and their spouses and partners, what would it be? It came to me that it would be the gift of being able to experience joy. Not especially happiness, which is nice but settles somewhere on the surface of things. No, the gift of being open to the experience of joy. Joy one can only experience when being truly and completely open to the idea of innocent Self and willing to experience it without conditions or qualifications. How does that translate to getting a nostril pierced. I quit quantifying all the reasons I should or shouldn't and listened to my inner child say 'how cool is that to have something fun and sparkly right on your nose!'. And so now, nestled right on my nose, looking for all the world like just another fad is a twinkling reminder to live true to myself, and to offer to others the freedom to live true to themselves. Welcome to the world Lucia. May you have the courage and opportunity to live a life full of joy.