Let the record show that on this 5th day of July 2021, I wholeheartedly admit, I am not a fan of surprises. Let me explain. I like things to be well calculated, thought out. Details upon details for miles and miles, not to leave anything out; for everyone there is a two, for every “a” there must be a “b”, so on and so forth. Its logical. Its sensical. More than anything else, it makes life make sense. Life makes sense. Right? A basic life with the courtesy of details makes perfect sense. Or does it?
In 2002 a singer songwriter by the name of the India Arie, wrote a song entitled- Beautiful Surprise. In the song she describes the many facets of someone coming into her life one day unannounced, and her ability to learn from not only him, but from this experience. As if we had not learned enough, singer songwriter Tamia in 2012 has an aptly penned a song entitled, Beautiful Surprise. She sings about the arrival of someone new in her life that she, wouldn’t you know it, was not expecting. This unscheduled person came along and opened her heart to something unknown, impromptu, and without details.
Over a month ago, I decided I wanted a dash of color in my hair. Purple was my color of choice to say. I lathered the color deposit into my hair, layer by layer. I combed it through my hair. I allowed the color to sit on my hair for not just 30 minutes, but forty whole minutes. I had the timer set to perfection. I readied myself. Armed myself with anticipatory excitement and commenced to washing out the color deposit via the shower. As the color washed out of my hair, I noticed that all my surroundings were splashed with purple. The shower curtain lining was clear but there were specks of lavender, the walls in the shower were purple and there were purple shampoo flecks on the soap. With a nice immediate purple environment, my hair was ready to be ripe for the picking, right? Absofruitly NOT! It was as if the color rinsed right out of my hair upon seeing the water. There was no trace of the color in my hair. I was quite disappointed to say the least.
3 weeks, 2 hair washes and 1 hair cut later, I decided to try again. This time, I wanted the color grey. This time, I decided to bleach my hair. While in between colors, I learned I needed to perform a few extra steps for optimal color. So, a few steps I performed. While, bleaching my hair, my color turned a light shade of orange. I as was beyond scared straight, but there was no turning back. Here’s what I discovered, the purple color that I started with the previous month, had been there all along. The color was on the curl coils that had not been stretched out. Needless to say, I panicked! I did not order orange hair. Whelp, the toner came in and relieved some anxiety. The hopes of that grey color had left. What appeared after the toning and coloring process was….. surprise!! a beautiful strawberry blonde with a hint of lavender notes, and I LOVE IT.
This strawberry blonde with lavender notes was not on my list of must haves. This was a complete surprise. This taught me that once I was invested in myself and the outcome, I went at my own speed, and trusted the process. There was no way I could turn back, besides what was there to turn back to, the outdated version was no longer there. I was ALL IN. Because I was all in, because I had invested time in myself, because I was ready to see the outcome of the work that had been put in, I was inexplicably beautifully surprised!
My fellow Warrior, if you are anything like me, you want details, and you want them now. We are designed to live life abundantly; abundantly are where the sweet surprises of life will find you. Leave the details to the Father. He knows and He has worked out all of them. It’s just up to you to accept the surprises that are headed you way.
