Make Believe

When I was younger one of my most favoritest -- yes it's a word...at least in Casa MoJo it is -- things to do was to play dress up. We had some rainy day dresses that were indeed exactly what they were called. We could only play with them when it was raining. I think it was ingenious of my mom to designate them specifically to rainy days because let me tell you, there were days we would wish for rain!

These were beautiful frilly dresses that were too big for us (probably bridesmaid dresses) that we would adorn and keep on all day long. Another box was jimmied out of the closet full of all the trimmings. My sister and I would spend all day pretending we were princesses, doing our hair and makeup and primping. We would trade dresses - and identities-- and prance around in high heels. We loved it. We believed.

Of course as we grew older, the dresses were pulled out of the closet less frequently, and eventually we just stopped playing with them. Certainly, I never gave up the dream of being a princess, and because of God's grace, I found my prince charming.

One thing about make believe is that I knew all along, that it was just pretend. I would tell myself all day long that I was a royal princess, and all day long I acted the part. But when the dress came off I knew that it was just make believe, shoved back into a box for another rainy day.

I've been playing make believe for awhile now. I've been in my princess dress for too long, and today, I took it off.

Today, I set the record straight. Today, I fought back the untruths, and today, for the first time in ages, I was proud for having not been a coward to tell the truth. Of course, I can't be the only one to take the dress off. More dresses, and make up and high heeled shoes need to be tucked back into their boxes for me to really believe that the future will be brighter. Sure, it's going to rain. As long as we remember that the costumes only last for so long. It's important to put them away.
When they are stashed away, it's important to know that we are indeed not royalty, and while it was fun to pretend, the real world is here complete with a shining sun. If we try to keep the dress on, we'll find all we have are rainy days.