Braid your sadness…

One of my Facebook friends shared the words to this…

It’a a beautiful poem….my Spanish sucks, so I couldn’t begin to translate it and do it Justice.

Have been growing my hair for two years, in recent months, I have started braiding my hair….it keeps it out of my face…it keeps me not looking so haggard and old…and it’s just an easy fix to all those bad hair days one has when sporting long hair.

It’s been years since I’d had long hair….I let it grow out about shoulder length a few years back….to do something different….and to see what a 50 something year old woman, soon approaching 60 would look like with long hair…..and men like women with long hair…to, imagine a man pulling my hair and face toward him and filling my face with sweet passionate kisses, like in the movies! LOL….it never happened…but it was a nice fantasy.
When I was a kid in first grade, I went to school with hair down to my ass…in braids my mother would wrap it with ribbons and bows to match the dresses I wore….that hair didn’t last long, as I caught a bad case of lice….and it was soon cropped off by the neighbor girl who was going to beauty school….I was an experiment!

Thoughtout the rest of my school years my hair was short and when Twiggy hit the stage, I wore my hair cutting it just like hers…with long false eyelashes….Twiggy and I had one thing in common, skinny legs!!!

As my sister began her chemo treatments, and started to lose her hair, I felt bad for her….and I made her some headscarfs, and knitted caps for her to wear….
It must be devastating as a woman to lose your hair….my sister had worn her long for much of her life….and as the chemo treatments took a toll on her body, they took a tool on her hair also…finally deciding to cut it short….
So, I decided I would let mine grow, so I could donate it to Locks of Love….
I regretted not telling her why I was letting my hair grow as she was losing hers….because one day she made a comment that struck me…and realized what it must have meant to her….but…I didn’t want to sound like I was making an exucse, so kept quiet…..I’m still waiting for the required 12 inches…and because I’d like to keep it at least shoulder length for a while…I’m thinking two more years of growth will do…

Hair says so much about us….it is our “crown”…..we wear it proudly, primp it constantly….spend millions on it…abuse it with chemicals…care for it with holistic non shampoo ingredients. Sometimes our hair defines us…
Men hide under hair pieces and women even more….some of us, hide the gray and straighten out the curls….

Braiding my hair in recent months has been a kind of therapeutic thing….sitting on the edge of my bed….pulling strands and folding one on top of another….a plain braid, a French braid….especially as I come out of the shower…hair wet and smelling clean….or letting it dry…and the softness and thickness of my hair in between my fingers, tugging at it to make the braid tighter….undoing those braids a couple of days latter and suddenly this straight and course hairs is full of gentle curling waves cascading down like a waterfall…..

Little had I realized what I was doing as I braided my hair….that I was braiding my sorrows…my sadness..the pain is trapped in the folds of the braid…and cannot escape to the rest of the body…it’s a wonderful thought…and like so many old Spanish sayings, customs…this is another I will remember….

Trenzaré mi tristeza…

Decía mi abuela que cuando una mujer se sintiera triste lo mejor que podía hacer era trenzarse el cabello; de esta manera el dolor quedaría atrapado entre los cabellos y no podría llegar hasta el resto del cuerpo; había que tener cuidado de que la tristeza no se metiera en los ojos pues los haría llover, tampoco era bueno dejarla entrar en nuestros labios pues los obligaría a decir cosas que no eran ciertas, que no se meta entre tus manos- me decía- porque puedes tostar de más el café o dejar cruda la masa; y es que a la tristeza le gusta el sabor amargo. Cuando te sientas triste niña, trénzate el cabello; atrapa el dolor en la madeja y déjalo escapar cuando el viento del norte pegue con fuerza.

Nuestro cabello es una red capaz de atraparlo todo, es fuerte como las raíces del ahuehuete y suave como la espuma del atole.

Que no te agarre desprevenida la melancolía mi niña, aun si tienes el corazón roto o los huesos fríos por alguna ausencia. No la dejes meterse en ti con tu cabello suelto, porque fluirá en cascada por los canales que la luna ha trazado entre tu cuerpo. Trenza tu tristeza, decía, siempre trenza tu tristeza…

Y mañana que despiertes con el canto del gorrión la encontrarás pálida y desvanecida entre el telar de tu cabello.

Texto: de Paola Klug.

Maravilloso y profundo escrito… lo comparto con todas mis hermanas alrededor del mundo.♚