the yellow dress

From the moment I laid eyes on her wearing that yellow dress, I knew in the depth of my soul there was something extraordinary about it. But my sweet kindred spirit had her heart set on the coral one. Hesitantly not wanting to crush her excitement, I gently persuaded her to purchase the yellow dress. I knew it is was only a dress, yet somehow felt strongly compelled to urge her to spend the money and buy it. You see my sweet kindred spirit was in a quandary. She loves a good bargain and usually never spends more than $10 on an item. The yellow dress was a tad bit more than $10. Without a doubt in my mind, I knew she had to have that yellow dress in her possession. Why was I being so pushy? It is not in my nature. What I didn't know was God had a plan for that yellow dress in the coming months!

I know that last statement may seem odd. Some of you may even wonder how I could "spiritualize" something so seemingly shallow and materialistic. Allow me to wander down a "rabbit trail" for a moment. In my opinion, I do believe we can express our God-given creativity through our personal style. Why not! My ability to put a good outfit together has nothing to do with vanity-well maybe a wee bit at times. I LOVE being creative and think I am pretty good at it! Some people think I have a quirky style, but so what. It is who I am. It is who God made me to be. My spirit leaps when I am able to utilize my creativity to its full potential. That comes from God. God is incredibly creative. Look at the world He made. Look at us humans. The intricate details of our entire body and every system within, is an amazing work of creativity. My wardrobe is my canvas. The yellow dress was a blank canvas eagerly awaiting to tell its story; bursting to expose the world to our astounding Creator.

Many incredible yarns have been spun about the yellow dress since the day my friend brought it home, stories of God's amazing grace. The one close to my heart involves my precious student with autism, "S." From the first moment her sparkling, peaceful eyes spied the picture of my kindred spirit wearing the yellow dress, she fell in love and subsequently became bewitched! Over the course of the year, any chance she got, "S" wanted to look at the yellow dress picture. Unbeknownst to me, she must have memorized my web album address, found the pic and downloaded it to her computer. One year later she still talks about the yellow dress. In fact just the other day she mentioned it to me while we were working at the computer in the school library. Next thing I know she has the yellow dress as her wallpaper!!

The yellow dress connects her with my kindred spirit, who has recently painted her portrait (with the permission of "S's" parents of course!) The journey of the portrait, based on a photo I took, is another incredible story of God's amazing grace which I may share another time. All I will say is the portrait is entitled, Peace "S" and everyone who encounters the picture encounters God's peace!

I don't think we will see an end to the chronicles of the yellow dress and on this special day I feel it is fitting to pay tribute to my kindred spirit. Happy Birthday Shavey! I love you!

Since it is Shave's birthday, I thought I would share a few photos from my archives!!

The Yellow Dress! circa 1984, '85, Niagara Falls, FBYPA Youth Rally. Shave and I and our other close friend Lisa posing with our realistic looking water-gun cameras. Our drill was we would walk up to a cute guy on the street and ask if we could take his photo. Proudly he would pose, then we would aim our "camera" and shoot! We would run away giggling. Oh the joys of being a teenager!

1982, MBC, caught in the act!

"Our band that never could!" Shave's husband made this t-shirt for her back in the 80's. It still fits today! One day we will resurrect Shave and the Razors! ( I am "Daisy!")