This Sunday, Anna and I got tattoos.
One of Anna’s co-worker’s tattoo artist (say that five times fast), was running a flash day fund raiser for RAICES Texas, an organization helping reunite children with their parents on the Texas boarder, as well as provided legal aid and a variety of other financial support to the separated families. Anna and two of her co-workers decided that they were going to go and support, and get tattoos, and I decided to join them.
The flash sheet was released Sunday morning, and unfortunately, nothing spoke to me, but I did want to support my friends, so off to the shop we went. Everyone chose their tattoo, and got their quotes, so everyone took turns hopping off to the ATM up the street to accommodate their new art pieces.
Naturally, I went with Anna, and she was lamenting a little. She had tentatively scheduled a date for that evening, but her tattoo was a little off budget, and being the 29th of August, it was everyone’s favourite time of the month, knowing that the next week would bring god know how many automatic withdrawals of the first of the month. She contemplated changing the tattoo, or maybe the size, so she could return back to her original budget range. I reassured her, and reminded her that the tattoo was something she had been planning for weeks, and how excited she had been. This was the first I was hearing about a date, how excited was she really to go out with this guy?
“You know what?” She finally said, throwing her hands up. “Ink before dinks!”
My girl got a tattoo, and cancelled her date. We picked up my boyfriend and pokewalked, then all had A&W together.
So what does this have to do with wellness? Everything.
At the end of the day, you’re in charge of your own happiness and well-being. I know how cliche it sounds, but it’s so incredibly true. It broke my heart watching the stress well in the face of my friend, and it was so beautiful to watch it all melt away in the single moment where she made a choice for herself, and her happiness and her sanity. It’s little moments like that, that we all forget to take for ourselves sometime.
Friends, don’t be afraid to say no, and don’t be afraid to be ‘selfish’. We need to take care of our minds and our hearts just as much as our bodies. We need to know when it’s too much, and to take that step back we need to re-align and put ourselves back together sometimes. Never be afraid to do that. We can’t give the people around us the best version of us, if we don’t take care of ourselves!
And yes, I did get a tattoo, as one of the artists had some room in his schedule. I’ll write about it later, as despite seemingly getting it on a whim, it was a tattoo I was planning for a while, and it has very deep significance and meaning to me.
(Side note, the artist raised $1340 for RAICES during her flash event. If you’d like to find out more, or donate to RAICES, click here.)
tanksinheels.com 