No red lipstick on my teeth…

‘You belong here,’ I say to myself.

My slow stride leads me into the room…deeper, to where the sound of mingling women fills the air.

I hear glasses clinking and conversational laughter chiming.

Beautiful, harmonious designer perfumes orbit me as I draw closer.

I catch a glimpse of myself in a mirror on the wall…walking past it, then returning to snag a deeper look into my own face.

No red lipstick on my teeth.

I straighten my shoulders, loosen my grip on my handbag and push forward.

‘You belong here,’ I say to myself again.

I mentally map the route I’ll take into the gathering of silk, cashmere and linen, scanning for familiar faces.

Not seeing any, I reroute my entry until I find an always-welcoming smile I know.

Drawing in a deep breath, I push forward and cross the threshold into a beautiful evening filled with sisterhood, service and charity- some really, really good stuff.

The kind of stuff that lets you lay your head down at night filled with purpose and soul shine.

Stuff that I would have certainly missed had I not walked into this room.

I often remind myself how grateful I am that I’ve learned to embrace blind confidence- a crowning gift I’ve given myself permission to have.

Not overconfidence.

Blind confidence.

I’m not sure where it comes from.

Maybe it’s a gift from a childhood of countless new starts.

Always starting over.

Always the new girl.

Constantly battling imposter syndrome.

Somewhere in the hardships of my youth, I exchanged imposter syndrome for blind confidence.

What started as a survival skill became a growth skill.

One thing I know to be true: people are just people. And in this life, everyone has hoped, at one time or another, that someone would invite them to sit at their table.

Like everyone, my life has brought both invitations and denials.

And both have graced me with lessons- the most important being the truth of knowing my own value.

The truth in knowing:

‘You belong here.’

Wherever ‘here’ may be.

And it is my hope that you, too, know that wherever ‘here’ is for you…you belong there.

There’s no red lipstick on your teeth either. ❤️