Weird Is The New Black

WEIRD

Though I am not much of a trend-setter when it comes to fashion, weird is a color I wear well.  You see, I've embraced my inner weird.  And my Halloween wish for all of you is to embrace yours.

Yes, wear your weird, just like a Halloween costume, everyday of the year. 

Let me tell you how weird came on the radar today of all days. 

I first started this post a couple of weeks ago.  It was a great title but I just didn't know what I wanted to say,  so I set in aside.  I returned to the topic last week but still felt that I needed more time. Ironically enough, I woke up this morning with 'weird' on the brain.  I started to chuckle at the timing of posting Weird Is The New Black on Halloween. 

Perfect.

Weird: [wyrd] concerned with or controlling fate or destiny, unearthly or uncanny, fantastic.

My observation is that we are all weird and we expend so much energy appearing to be normal. (I have long since discovered that normal doesn't exist because it is constantly changing.)  Well, rest assured, that if weird is the new normal, all that energy can do something much more creative and fun.

So, let me tell you the story of how I came to celebrate weird as the new black today with a technique called Telling The Story Backwards. This exercise, a terrific Martha Beck coaching tool, is rather like The House That Jack Built or There Was An Old Lady Who Swallow A Fly.  (Fly swallowing is a great tale to tell on Halloween!)

1. I noticed a post by coach Sherold Barr on Facebook about her interview with Seth Godin and his new book We Are All Weird. (That got my attention.)

2. I clicked on the link and read the article which led me to Seth Godin's site where I read about the new book. We Are All Weird  "is a celebration of choice, of treating different people differently and of embracing the notion that everyone deserves the dignity and respect that comes from being heard. The book calls for end of mass and for the beginning of offering people more choices, more interests and giving them more authority to operate in ways that reflect their own unique values." 


We Are All Weird by Seth Godin



3.  I was struck by the title because what I now do as my work in the world is weird (uncanny/fantastic) and I am a very mainstream kinda gal.  I am at the intersection of intuitive healing and life coaching.  You can call it intuitive coaching or life healing (that one has a nice ring to it).

4. In my work with a new business coach, Laurie Foley, she assigned  Book Yourself Solid by Michael Port. In making my way through the book, the author asks a series of questions to generate ideas, responses and information about serving your ideal clients. It was a simple exercise that started with a simple question called the who and do what statement.  His example was: I help professional service providers book themselves solid.  My immediate response for myself was:   I'm the gal you come to when weird shows up in your life.

5. I became 'the gal you come to when weird shows up in your life' because weird is what happened to me in 2001.  I spent five years with a collection of strange neurological disorders that turned my life upside down and inside out.  After the first year or so, I began to call the symptoms, The Weirdness. I spent almost five years in the western medical community seeking answers to this change in my health and my life. It took embracing my 'weirdness' to open the door to a much bigger, broader world.  At the time, I had fairly conventional views about what was possible. I was invited by my experiences to open to a whole new world of possibilities and to connect with an untapped creative potential within myself.  This required that I accept the weirdness that was coming through me. In telling the story backwards, it is poignant how life has made the most of this really scary, challenging time in my life.  It was a time that in turn led to the discovery a powerful light that I can use to guide others through the dark and scary places in their lives.  How is that for a weird twist of fate...or is it destiny?

I will leave you to decide for yourself.

There is something strangely, dare I say, weirdly poetic, about how all of this has unfolded.  Destiny or not, I feel uniquely prepared to be of service in the weird department, the uncanny, and unearthly department, all the while having my very practical, feet planted on the ground.

What is popping out in your life today?  What word, idea or image keeps showing up?  Mine was weird and this has given me some excellent clues in the house that's been built through Mary. What is life building with you?  Pay attention.  Destiny may be knocking at the door to your house.  Don't be spooked if it is dressed in black.  I hear it's in fashion this season.