“It’s not that easy being green
Having to spend each day the color of the leaves
When I think it could be nicer being red, or yellow or gold
Or something much more colorful like that…”
(Kermit the Frog of the Muppets)

I’m not sure why, but as a child I so wanted to be tall, smart and a good athlete. I would stretch when I went to bed at night, hoping that would make me taller. I was average height, a little better than an average student and a little worse than average athlete. I wasn’t the last picked for the team, but it wasn’t too far from it. At the ripe old age of 70, like Kermit in the above song, I’m still trying to like being who I am.

Lidia Yuknavitch in her February 2016 TED talk, shares what it has been like for her to be herself, a misfit. She talks of the homeless as heroes and takes us on her personal journey from failure and despair to success as a mother, teacher and writer by changing her working myth and accepting herself for who she is.

Thanks for the encouragement Lidia. You’ve inspired me to keep at it and given me a new appreciation for the maverick or misfit in myself. Now maybe I can sing the last verse of the above song with Kermit and you and anyone else willing to take the risk:

“When green is all there is to be
It could make you wonder why, but why wonder why
Wonder, I am green and it’ll do fine, it’s beautiful
And I think it’s what I want to be.”

CPP

We are a community of laymen and laywomen who, with vowed Passionists, seek to share in the charism of St. Paul of the Cross through prayer, ongoing spiritual formation, and proclamation of the message of Christ Crucified.