Joy Dare: November 25, 2021 - 3 GIFTS UGLY-BEAUTIFUL

Today was Thanksgiving. This is not one of my favorite days. I was dreading today more than usual when it dawned on me that it didn't need to be anything other than a Thursday. We had incredible weather for the Pacific Northwest so I took advantage of it. I didn't suspect it would give me my 3 gifts ugly-beautiful, but it sure did.

My car checks all the boxes for ugly. It's missing three of the four pieces of trim molding on the doors. It has several scratches scattered around all sides, including the biggest ones from someone who just hit me last week and added white paint transfer onto my blue. The ugliest part is the hood and front side of the roof. The clearcoat has all peeled away, much like a sunburn. It didn't simply peel off so you see the color. It came off in little round pieces so it looks like someone threw acid on it. I love my vehicle, but it is ugly.

However, after spending all of last week in the shop getting more oil leaks repaired, and some pretty significant pieces of the steering, ball joints, and other essential items working again...it is road-worthy and deemed safe! I love to drive, so this was a beautiful gift to me. I can now hit the road again. So I did.

I wanted to meander but wasn't sure where and I wanted to only be out for an hour or two. I hit the Columbia River Scenic Byway to test out the steering on those hairpin turns. Stopping at several waterfalls and walking a few short trails brought me to the second ugly-beautiful gift of the day. My pristine bright yellow running shoes that still look new four years later, have some ugly on them. Lots of mud and mashed leaves were clinging to the soles. When I took a closer look, I realized that the white foam on the sides is now gray. The bright yellow on the heels is covered and stained with browns and oranges. I'm not sure if they'll come clean. I'm a bit of a perfectionist so I would normally have found this disheartening.

The beautiful part of the shoes is that until about a month ago, I wouldn't have been able to consider walking along those pathways. I have had chronic pain for 24 years. Recently, I have found some therapeutic work that is returning my life to me. I didn't expect to get out of my car once today, but I found myself eager to explore on foot. This healing and strengthening are so precious and beautiful to me. I'd given up hope of ever being able to do things like this again. But it looks like I'm going to need to buy some hiking boots!

The third part of today also qualifies as ugly-beautiful. I planned to listen to an audiobook for the short highway portion of the trip and then switch it up to Christmas music, or something else on my road trip list of music. But, I found myself captivated by the storytelling style of the person reading this book. I'm new to audiobooks as I usually drift off when someone is talking for that length of time. Or, at best, my mind wanders and I don't hear what was read. Today, the book was a non-fiction one that took me to the stage of ugly crying a few times. But, the beautiful part was that this meant my heart was being reached.

I am grateful for the courage to do something different for a holiday that doesn't include me. I'm thrilled to have found my three gifts in that drive, even if it turned out to be a little over three hours!

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FIRST-TIME READER?

This is the link to my first post on this topic, in case you're curious what this is about.

https://thatresonates.blogspot.com/2021/10/joy-dare-trial-run-october-1-2-2021.html