ALMOST NO PINK!

After a month of looking for and finding lots of pink, I was determined that today there would be NO PINK WHATSOEVER in my Blip and I almost managed it!  

My first port of call today was my Slimming World class - at 8 o’clock this morning - where several of us had been nominated to be a Slimming World Icon - and at the meeting, we were all invited to give a short resumé of our journey.  You know how much I like words, so I looked up the meaning of the word “Icon” and it means “a person, symbol, image or picture that is widely admired for its conspicuous feature or having a great influence or significance.”  WOW - not sure I fit into any of those categories!

Then I looked up cultural icons - and found that ELVIS PRESLEY was one - now I can sing, but not quite like Elvis!  Looking further, I found that MARILYN MONROE was also considered to be a cultural icon - well, if I only had the figure of Marilyn, I wouldn’t mind, but don’t think at my age that’s going to happen and for those of you who remember, I certainly wouldn’t even contemplate recreating the famous scene from the 1955 film, “The Seven Year Itch” where Marilyn Monroe's dress billows over a subway grating.  Yes, I take lots of photographs, but even in that sphere, I wouldn’t class myself as a Photography Icon. 

So all of these musings brought me back to one of my favourite quotes,  which I suppose could be classed as my “conspicuous feature” - MY SMILE.

The saying is “My smile is my best feature and smiles don’t get fat!”   I don’t know where and when I found this, but it has been my mantra over the years, and I have tried always to smile, even when going through difficult times in my life - it hasn’t always been easy and sometimes it’s been a very watery, and sometimes tearful smile, but I have smiled, nevertheless and it has made a difference.  

Many of you know that I am a Christian, and whilst I don’t push it on here, I do often mention Church on a Sunday - and I am not ashamed to say I am a Christian - I probably feel more uncomfortable being known as an Icon!  

So today, after being absolutely gob-smacked to actually win the accolade of being a Slimming World Icon, along with Pauline from our class, I could hardly speak - and I know that many of you won’t believe that!!  Oh yes, I can talk, and write long journal entries, but coming from a childhood where I was never affirmed in any way, I just couldn’t believe that people would vote for me because my slimming/losing weight story isn’t anywhere near as amazing as some of the other members of the class.

A while later, my friend, Louise picked me up and she took me to the Harnhill Centre of Christian Healing, which I mentioned last Sunday - and we were both blessed in the service and being prayed for afterwards.  The extra shows Harnhill Manor - and if you look closely, you will see some pink flowers in front of the Manor - part of the garden with a lone seat and a gorgeous tree, a beautiful sculpture, the gardener’s wheelbarrow, probably left whilst he was having a cup of coffee and some beautiful honeysuckle, as a nod to Flower Friday, with a smidgen of pink, so not quite a pink-free day.

Thank you for reading through this long journal entry - I keep thinking I will do a month of not writing anything but just posting my photograph, but I don’t think that will happen - not as long as I can still type very fast anyway!  

Bless you all and I hope you have a great weekend.  M xx  

P.S.  At the moment, I cannot upload the extra but will try again soon to see if it works!  In fact, having just investigated, ALL my extras appear to be missing - think I need to put in a request to see what's going on.  I duly put in the request, but then thought that my membership may have lapsed but I had not been informed that it was due.  Finding the said email in my SPAM folder and I have now renewed - be warned!   Extra now uploaded.  Phew.