When Eating, Eat: So You Say I'm a Hippie

The Life of Labeling

My friend walked into my house last night as I was flipping through the pages of “Self” Magazine.

“Oh, so you DO do normal girl stuff!” He exclaimed with pleasant surprise.

My friend made me watch my very first episode of The Simpsons last night.

At my house, my Netflix is stocked with documentaries.

My little sister’s boyfriend asked me if I’m a hippie.

Hippie?? Do hippie’s use deodorant?

I am usually the friend at the diner who orders cheese fries with gravy and chicken fingers.

At home I cannot wait to chuck some spinach and bee pollen into my blender and relax with a tall glass of apple-cider-vinegar-water.

I don’t call myself a hippie. I don’t call myself a normal girl. I don’t call myself a yogi or a finance major or a preacher.

I had a 10 minute yoga session outside in 9 F yesterday in my purple pants and tiny tank.

My friend told me it was “too cold” for that and that I would get sick.

I called it invigorating.

These ‘labels’ that we create for objects, people and circumstances can be so funny sometimes.

I don’t mind the labels, actually. In a way, they create a sense of normalcy and interrelatedness in our society.

People would FREAK if all of a sudden we decided to call rollerblades inline skates.

But did we ever really decide if a tomato is a fruit or a vegetable?

What if we did not have to define things within the standardized human language or by the laws of science?

I studied Business in college, and was pretty darn good at it, if I should say so myself. I was all Honors and dorky and often found myself behind a black pencil skirt and collared shirt applying for jobs in big NYC offices.

I had my skirts turned into yoga pants.

I grew up in the Catholic church and took my dear Grandma’s name, Faustina, at my confirmation.

Last night, I did a 30 minute silent meditation at the Westchester Buddhist Center.

I am still a finance major...a volleyball player...a skiier...a big, and little, sister...a writer...a peace promoter...a laugher...

I’m sarcastic. I’m smart. I speak spanish.

I make a lot of mistakes. I am rude to my mother. I miss important activities with my friends. I eat pizza.

I cry. I curse. I feel the cold. I drink beer on Friday nights.

I want to have an impact on the world. I believe in world peace. I believe the animals are our brothers, the earth is our mother, and the sun and flowers live within us.

I will write a book. I will have my own business. I will go back to El Salvador. I will study meditation in India. I will have my own family and be financially independent.

You can call me a hippie, a head-stander, or a helper.

I’m not quite sure I am any of those things… or all of them.

Rather than spending my time trying to define or be defined, I just use my time the way I feel fulfilled using it. That is it.

Sometimes, if I feel really empowered by some literature, by some thoughts, by a movement in my body or a feeling in nature that invigorates me - I choose to share it.

Because, while we have all seen and felt the painful effects of technology, we can also use it to spread positive messages. And I think it’s nice to connect with those people who choose to connect with me during those moments of empowerment or humanizing weakness. I notice how the inner peace of others motivates me and I love when I, myself, have done something good for someone else... just by being me! And sharing that with people is contagious- the good kind.

You can go outside on a cold day without the “appropriate” clothes and say it’s “freezing”.

Or, you can say, “the wind on my bare skin, reminds me that I am alive. The deepness of my breath reminds me that I can still breathe. The trembling in my legs reminds me that I still have 2 of them. The air is cold, yet the sky is so very blue and the sun still shines between the branches of very majestic trees. And, there, just ahead of where I am looking in warrior two pose, are the remnants of my dog’s lunch...”

And you laugh.

Because sometimes we fail to see what is right in front of us.

There is so much depth and beauty in all that we are living - yet we sometimes only see the labels.

It feels so good to embrace yourself and all that you are without being limited by how others or a dictionary would define you.

What do you REALLY want to do today? Allow yourself 20 minutes to do it.