...by constantly telling them that they are.
In this post, will refer to my friend as "Pumpkin" since that is my nickname for her. Her nickname for me is "Darling." (I strongly recommend picking out nicknames by mutual accord as a tactic for cementing a friendship.) Pumpkin always tells me how amazing she thinks I am. And beautiful and talented and creative and interesting. She's so inspired by me. Whatever I said was incredibly insightful. She's been thinking about it all week. It has already changed her life, etc. To be frank, it seems a shame to write "etc." because everything she says is so beautiful that I wish I could tell you it all, but within the word limit of a blog post, I hope you get the idea.
So the other day, we were headed to her house for dinner. I had just spent five hours in the garden and really wanted to put on jeans and a sweater and call it a day. But I thought, "Pumpkin always tells me how great my outfits are. I want to wear something wonderful for her." A dress popped into my mind. Maybe a little too short for somebody who's 45, oops, no, that's 46...maybe a little too form-fitting for a casual dinner, but what the heck, it was for Pumpkin!
As you might have guessed, it's the dress in the photo, which was taken in her front yard under her gorgeous blooming cherry tree. I had decided to have my husband take a photo for my style blog and Instagram (shameless plug - www.robinpoolstyle.com / @robinpoolstyle) As I opened the coat she shouted, "Your husband is one lucky man!" You can see the smile that ensued.
It's a fundamental truth: over time, telling people how great they are inspires them to be that way!
I'm so glad Pumpkin encourages me about my outfits, and I put on the dress last Saturday, and she shouted that amazing thing at just the right time, and I got a photo of me with a great smile, and I put it on Instagram, and to this date 47 people have liked it (if you count Facebook likes), including one "super cute" from someone I don't even know! The seed of her vision of my wonderfulness has grown to bring joy and pleasure to many. What a gift that we all can do the same. I tell her how inspired I am by her, too.
Just in case you are wondering whether the universe loves Pumpkin as much as she loves me, check out what I found for her at Goodwill on Sunday....
Hope you all have a wonderful day!