The Cutting-Room Floor

Imagine life is a movie.  

I often do, so I’m told.  And it’s not hard if you let your imagination run.

Imagine that life, as in art, is filled with choices about what stays in and what goes out… what is first rate and what is second rate… which ideas, passions and actions get to see the light of day… get to blossom and absorb your energy… and which get abandoned on the cutting-room floor never to be thought of again.

(Well, except for the Bloopers which is another story…)

Imagine the freedom of leaving all mistakes behind…

Perhaps you saw the quote in my arts blog ‘The Permanent Present’: “Breathe in the rich blessings of each new day – forget all that lies behind you.”  I came upon it as part of my new year’s resolution to read something spiritual or inspirational every day, and I love it.

Imagine conducting the business of life through trial and error without present or post judgement…

 
Imagine letting the things of lesser quality go…

Imagine redoing things until you get the best take…

This theme occurred to me in a random moment (as most ideas for this blog do) when stepping out of the hairdresser's recently. 

My hairdresser, Toni, is a terrific woman – professionally and personally. When I step back into the world after a few hours of pampering in her salon, I am transformed.  I feel a million bucks.  And I look to all-the-world like the best version of myself…

To the salon I slouch.  Out of the salon I strut.  Heads turn… cars slow down to let me pass in front… I know I look good.  Height and confidence soar… such is the impact on a woman of a ‘good hair day’.

So I wondered, imagine if you could always feel the ‘best version of yourself’…

If even most of the time you could hang on to the best version of yourself...

Of course I mean the best version inside and out.  Integration is key.  So imagine if you fully understood which elements combine to help you be that ‘better person’… which elements or associations obstruct the formation of the ‘best version of yourself’…. and you pursued it the way a director pursues a good edit and a great film…

I have a question,Girls: do you always take your hair on an outing after you’ve had it done?  I never go straight home.  It gives me a ‘gotta be out there amongst it’ feeling.  And inevitably something fun or adventurous happens on those evenings, oftentimes unplanned. 

I guess I feel the lift more keenly when I’ve gone longer between treatments… when my hair is an absolute fright going in… so in my future life when I have a personal hairdresser on tap (yeah, yeah, I know, dream on) the high might not be as noticeable.  Yet there’s still something to be learned from this experience. 

On the one hand this concept is about growing and building character.  On the other it’s about attitude and perspective. It’s about positive attracting positive.

Rather than tell you naughty post-hairdressing stories… which in Italy, in particular, were memorable as Italian men seem to love red heads… I will jump from the (nearly) profane to the sacred, and share a meaningful reflection I found this week. 

It comes from a bookmark being circulated by the organizers of Spirit in the City.  Like Lleyton Hewitt and Andy Murray at Queens, they are fighting the dreadful weather to try and hold an event in London today… good luck to them! 

This bookmark contains some beautiful wisdom expressed by Mother Teresa, about leaving behind what’s on the cutting-room-floor and chasing the ‘best version of yourself’…

People are often unreasonable, illogical and self centred; forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies; succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight; build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous; be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough; give the world the best you’ve got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and your God; it was never between you and them anyway!

 

And the clarity to come up with those words could only have come from a woman filled to the brim with love and forgiveness; a woman who saw goodness and value in everyone.  

She certainly became the best version of herself.  And she probably didn’t go near a hairdresser.

 

Recommendations: 

·   www.spiritinthecity.org 

·   For hairdressing email Toni at artoni22@hotmail.co.uk or phone 07810 454 389 (and mention this blog for a £5 discount).