The Suits of Armour: See you later.

This is me now. 

This is me now.  That was me in 2009.  I left that life behind in 2011, but that suit, along with about 20 others had been hanging in my closet waiting to be worn again.  We had already broken up, but neither of us were willing to admit it.

I tried to wear them, but every time I put one of them on, somehow we just didn’t want the same things. They still fit as they always had, but I had changed. I was no longer that person.  Somehow I felt like I couldn’t breathe  - like I was suffocating, and so I would take off the suit and hang it back up.

I think the suits were a back up plan in my mind.  I started my own business in 2011 and truthfully, I kept the suits in case I wanted to get a ‘real job’ again.  (Every entrepreneur thinks about that from time to time. )

Some weeks ago, I wrote about giving up the “suits of armour” in my closet. It was difficult to do of a long time.

That was me then in 2009. Before we broke up.

I even bundled them up in black plastic bags and placed them in the back of my car to deliver them to one of those places that takes clothes, but after driving around with them over a week and finding every excuse not to drop them off, I took them home again, unpacked them and hung them back up in my closet.

After a time, I took them out of my closet and placed them on a rack in my laundry room. I decided that I would wait to see if I had an inclination to wear them, and if so, I would bring them back into my closet.

Breaking up with my corporate wardrobe has been hard to do.  I couldn’t bear the thought of these treasures that carried me and protected me through my corporate life as I travelled through nirvana, into the belly of the great whale, and finally onto the precipice from which I would eventually learn to fly.

Then one day, I decided to gift them to someone whom I hoped would enjoy them and feel empowered in them as I had.  As she tried on each piece, I could see that they were made for each other.  That these beautiful pieces would serve her as they had me.  Breaking up was hard to do, but it was the right thing to do.