“Weird has   a problem   ervyone  thought  he   was Weird,   becau    his Name  was   Weird.
The nxst   day    his Name  was   Prtty     eryone   love    him.”

As one may see, I have kept this art for many years close to my heart ~ faded only in colour, never in import. My daughter created this wisdom piece when barely 5 years old. I have treasured it always and only now have I been drawn to bring my deep connection to this masterpiece of insight into words.

According to the Dictionary, one may find the following origin and definitions of ‘weird’

Adjective:
• Involving or suggesting the supernatural (beyond the natural)
• Fantastic or bizarre
• Archaic, concerned with or controlling fate or destiny

A few who have had, or presently live these attributes, often called heretics may include: Christopher Columbus, Joan of Arc, Einstein, Amelia Earhart, Beethoven, Florence Nightingale, Gandhi, Stephen Spielberg, Martin Luther and Coretta King, Stephen Hawking and the Dali Lama.

I clearly remember when I first heard some people scoffing Oprah as ‘weird’ for believing she could branch out into the magazine and television arena. All pioneers, geniuses, visionaries may be considered ‘weird’ whenever they venture into questioning or challenge existing concepts of the time. Moving beyond the known into new possibilities sets one up for labelling, fostered by fear.

Einstein addressed this fear head on, telling us that:

A problem can never be solved from the level at which it was created.          

He also stated that imagination is more important than knowledge: a statement that challenges much of our civilized fast forward nations of today.

Having the courage to live one’s differences to ‘risk being weird, may come with a high price tag.  Living this truth, one may be criticized, ridiculed, ostracized and even killed. I remember Sonia Choquette saying that like her, we must be ready to stand in the face of a thousand people telling us we are crazy for simply following our natural inner knowing, our intuition that guides us through life.

WEIRD, in the art above looks happy, excited, friendly, welcoming, gutsy and ready for any new adventure that may come his way. WEIRD looks like someone I would love to have as a friend. In many ways he looks like me and several of my closest friends.

I have not known the artist to make anything look ‘Prtty’ just to please others. Her strong sense of self from her earliest years seems to have inherently guided her forward and I highly respect that quality in her.

When she was young child, I remember often awakening to her before 6:00 a.m. questions: ‘Mom, I’ve walked the dog, had my breakfast and done my art?  What can I do now?’ She was always excited about life and the next thing she could learn or explore.

She first taught me about sending double body language messages when I was concerned for her safety as she headed out to the road; she just stood there at 4 years old and said to me:

‘Don’t talk mad at me with a smile on your face’.

The one, who when I brought the gerbil cage in for her Show and Tell, immediately took it to her legally blind classmate so he could first see up close, touch and talk to them. Then she passed it around to the rest of the class.

Both the dog house and her bedroom shelf, she constructed from her own inner schema at 7 years of age. She sat in the garage rafters of our new single parent home, politely saying to the neighbour who offered to help us hoist the heavy 2 x 10′s into storage: ‘No thank you, we can do it ourselves’, when he offered to help us. I quietly smiled, since I already knew how she would respond to his offer.

Deciding to construct a dinosaur for her Science project in grade one, I was enlisted for library research that very day. During the month it took to complete the project according to her own stipulations, advice from her dad and me was all she required.  The principal later explained that the judges did not award her first prize, since they couldn’t believe she had done such a complex assignment yourself.

This didn’t appear to concern you since you knew and I knew, and also the principal knew her level of excellence. Her belief in her abilities and certainty of outcomes aligned with what today, we term the ‘Law of Attraction’… much like another definition of the word Weird from the dictionary that both surprised and excited me.

Weird: before 900; (n.) ME (northern form of wird) OE wyrd; akin to WORTH; moving into the miraculous.

Akin in my mind, to the solid belief she held and holds in her ability to achieve her visions and goals to this day.

I was reminded of this assurance again the other day in the bookstore, seeing a tiny three year old walking down the aisle toward the children’s section; her mother following behind. At one point her mom instructed, let’s go this way now. She responded never looking back, never wavering from her goal:

‘No, mama, I’m going this way. I have my own mind you know’.

I smiled at her mom; she smiled in return continuing to follow her wee one. I, the quietly championing watcher seeing not just her, but both my daughters at that age, all the while thinking to myself:

YOU GO GIRL~! 

In the words of Astrologer Jonathan Cainer:

At school, they teach us all to read, to write, to add numbers together and to behave ourselves. They give no classes in how to develop intuition – build deeper, more meaningful relationships – or even how to relax and enjoy life without feeling constantly pressured. No wonder our world is in such a state. We are urged to value achievement more than empathy and money more than love.

Life authentically lived invites us to own the so called ‘weird’ to honour uniqueness in ourselves and in our children: we are meant to ‘have our own minds’ so that the ever expanding, evolving world of new possibilities may grace our lives.

How might life change if people were to influence fate and destiny by owning  their authentic worth?

If the chosen definition of ‘weird’  were to mean moving beyond the natural’ or known, what might be possible if we joined in this together?

In closing, I return to Einstein:

There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle or you can live as if everything is a miracle.

May your days be filled with peace and love, this holy season~    Linda