Hold on to your Hats!
Once upon a time there lived a woman...who wore many hats.
There was a Mum hat, Daughter hat, Wife hat, Friend hat, Business Owner hat, Maker hat, Cook hat, Taxi Driver hat, Nurse hat and many more.
She had so many that some days she didn’t quite know which hats to wear, she couldn’t keep up with what she was putting on or taking off.
Somewhere along the way, while she was collecting all these hats, she sadly lost her OWN hat! This was the most important hat of all! It was the hat that knew how to have fun, how to relax, how best to take care of herself.
It was the hat she had carried with her since she was born, it had changed colour and shape many times. I had developed some holes, that she patched lovingly with bright red thread. She did the very best she could and some of the patches made the hat more beautiful and some were rough to touch.
But every piece of the hat was her, the mended, rough, colourful, bright and beautiful pieces made this HER hat, all the mending done with the lovely red thread, the thread she used when she had to love and care for herself the most.
She could survive without the lost hat of course, but it took the shine off her world a little.
One blustery, wet, very dark day it all became a bit too much, there were just far too many hats! Hats on the floor, under the seats of her car, sprawled all over the kitchen bench, down the hallway, in her bed covers everywhere she turned there were more and more hats!
She sat in a slump and wished the hats would just go away, even just for five minutes.
Quitetly at first she heard a little voice say “look for YOUR Hat”...
Then a little louder “look for YOUR Hat”
Then it was shouting “FIND YOUR HAT! LOOK FOR IT IN THE DEEPEST DARKEST PLACES AND DIG IT OUT, YOU MUST FIND YOUR HAT!!”
She started searching wildly through all the hats, she could see a feint glow, she threw hats left and right digging deeper, the glow got brighter...til there under a huge pile of hats was HER very own hat. Crumpled and forgotten, but instantly she knew, it was hers.
She lifted it into her arms and squeezed it tightly, it felt different than ever before, yet familiar and lovely at the same time.
In that moment she knew she must never lose her hat again, and she couldn’t possibly keep juggling all these other hats, something had to change.
She started to un-crumple her hat, she smoothed it and felt all the textures, the velvety pinks and blues, the silky silvers and golds, even the gritty blacks and greys...then it hit her like a bolt of bright light to the chest.
She grabbed her scissors and her sewing machine and worked snipping and stitching for a whole day and night.
At dawn the next morning, she pulled her masterpiece from the machine.
Out of her very own hat, she had created many bags, bags of all shapes and sizes to carry all the other hats she had. She stitched them together with the special red thread, lovingly and with great care, to remind herself that love was in everything she carried, because she loved and cared for herself once again.
From that day on, she would no longer wear the hats falling off her head, three, four even five at once. She would never lose her own hat under that pile again. Instead she wore the beautiful bags, carrying only the hats she needed at the time, and safely putting back the ones she didn’t.
But best of all, the bags were HER, out for all to see never to be forgotten under the pile of hats ever again.