One morning while filling up my kettle with water, I peered out my kitchen window and onto the neighbors lawn to find all sorts of items laid out on the grass.  Yard sales can be hit or miss, but here in my beautiful neighborhood in Toluca Lake, CA, you're bound to find a few treasures.

I threw on Studhubs house shoes, secured a beanie for Mr. Moses, and sauntered over to see if there was anything I just couldn't live without.  Just as I think this yard sale might be more in the ‘miss' category, my fate changed when I eye a beautiful red dress tucked among the 70's fringed leather and faux fur.

Now, you have to understand, my favorite color of clothing is black.  Or shades of grey.  Not in a depressing type of way, but in an ‘It's been my job to back-up bands/singers for the last 10 years and we need to blend in.  No one needs to be looking at us.  We wear black.'  Plus it's my name and apparently my wardrobe has taken that name very seriously.

But there was just something about this little red dress.

I paid the lady the whopping $4.00 she asked for and strutted home with my new treasure that had recently been someone's trash.

Later that week, I wore the dress to my first red carpet event, wondering what would happen if a photographer or Hollywood reporter asked me, “And who are you wearing tonight, Christa?”  As someone who doesn't make a habit of lying, I could only imagine the look on their faces when I would force myself to say, “I have no idea.  I picked up this little number on my neighbor's front lawn last week for 4 bucks.”  They didn't ask.  Crisis averted.

On Monday night, it was hard not to feel like $4.00 as I snapped up the back of my downstairs neighbor's Louis Vuitton dress.  A stylist had sent over something special for her hubby's birthday party (something she's accustomed to as a former Louis Vuitton model and a brilliant musician–PS stay tuned for an interview from her next week!), and it was more than glorious.  It was French.  (Sigh).  One golden, perfect snap on that thing must have cost more than my entire garment WITH the shoes I had on my feet.  So feeling like 4 bucks, I found the need to announce to everyone who complimented me on my dress that it wasn't that great–I had bought it off of a stranger next door.  That if they said it was beautiful, it was just from a garage sale.  That it couldn't be that amazing, it was someone's trash.

And then it hit me.  I was valuing my dress for where it came from and what I had paid for it, and not that it looked beautiful on me.

I was so consumed with what it wasn't, that I couldn't see what it was.

And it was awesome.

YOUR TURN:

If our perceptions determine our reality, then do you have a little red dress that needs to be looked at from a different angle?   What details are you focusing on that you could shift?   Remember, your focus affects your emotions and then your actions.

It could be a relationship.  You might be so consumed with what's wrong that you've stopped valuing what's right.

It could be a job situation.  You might be so focused on what you hate that you can't be grateful that you have food in your mouth and a roof over your head.

It could be your past.  You might be so overwhelmed with what bad has happened to you, that you can't see the good that's happening to you now.

Once I began to see my little red dress as awesome, guess what?  My emotions felt awesome.  My behaviors became awesome.  And yes, I must admit, I was more awesome than ever.

“God, I ask for you to take the lack off of my eyes and help me to see the abundance that I have right now.  I ask to see the possibilities instead of the past.  I ask to see the good instead of the bad.  Thank you, Father, for all that you've done and for all you're going to do.  Amen.”