Tumbleweed Thoughts No. 4: One Size Does Not Fit All

I have a couple of friends (married to each other and highly intelligent) who work with and conduct research using frogs--Xenopus frogs, in particular. In fact, one of them has his doctorate in developmental biology.

And every year at Christmas I like to send them a little gift with a frog theme because I think I’m funny, however unoriginal.

So a few years back I sent them a Hatley mug and a sleepshirt with frogs on both items. I think the sleepshirt said something like “Hop into bed!” with a giant, leaping frog emblazoned across the front.

It was pretty darn cute if you ask me.

Anyway, a little bit after Christmas, I’m checking my email, and I notice a message from my friend, Lori, the wife of this incredibly bright duo.

Lo and behold, there’s a picture of her husband wearing the sleep shirt I had sent to her. Yes, the mug was for him.

Well, the shirt was one size fits all, and even before she looked at the style or tried it on, she decided there was no way it could be for her…she could tell it would swallow her whole. So she convinced her husband the shirt was for him and the mug was for her. They realized her mistake once he tried it on, but Lori thought it was so funny she took a picture of him in the nightshirt to send to me in a droll effort to let me know how much they appreciated the gifts.

I’m laughing like a hyena as I type.

Not Fitting!

You see, I think of Lori as the Diana to my Anne…or the Anne to my Anne, an obvious Anne of Green Gables reference. She’s terribly funny and always ready to torment her husband whom she adores. She would do anything for me or anyone in her life--up to and including taking me to a body art place for some creative ear piercing last time I was visiting in Montreal.

And truthfully, she’s more likely the Anne in our duo than I. I’m constantly and almost subconsciously trying to imitate her. I affectionately refer to her as my partner-in-crime.

She’s unique.

So it didn’t matter what my intentions were when sending the sleep shirt or that Hatley offered it as a one size fits all because, even though it was meant for a woman, it didn’t fit Lori.

Furthermore, despite the fact he could wear it, the style didn’t ‘fit’ her husband.

I’m using this little story as an illustration.

Why? It’s because God Himself, the Most Unique, designed each of us to be surprisingly, wondrously and beautifully different.

Going past the fingerprints and the ‘cup half-full/half-empty,’ then delving deeper down, upward, inside and back out, we each will have our own special place and time, our own way of viewing the world and our own set of physical limitations with which to work.

Could thinking on this ever get boring? Yes, for maybe half a second after an excruciatingly long day.

Common ground is lovely of course. I like being able to understand those around me. I sometimes need the mental simplicity of it. I oftentimes need the fellowship of it.

Still, I find it immensely interesting, even satisfying, to know when I peek out the door my eye is drawn to the tiny, blue wildflower nestling unobtrusively under the mossy, twisted oak. Soon after…when you look out from over my shoulder, your eye is drawn to the clouds puffy and puffing lazily across a sky so gloriously blue it hurts the eyes.

Then I can draw your eye down to the flower, and you can draw my eye up to the clouds.

And maybe only then…together…will we even begin to see the whole picture.

***************************

Want your own one size fits all, Hatley sleepshirt? Click on the link to explore your options.

Hatley "Don't Bug Me" Sleepshirt