The Curious Story of the Floodwater Pants

The story goes like this. I found a lovely pair of jeans at a thrift shop. They were in such good shape, I wondered if anyone had ever worn them. A rich dark blue with sparkly patterns on the pocket sold me on them and the kicker was I wouldn’t even have to hem them. I am five feet tall – seriously hobbit-like. So finding any pair of pants (or dress or skirt) that I don’t have to adjust in length is reason to celebrate.

Off I trotted home with a smile on my face. This particular pair was nice enough to wear on casual Friday at work. I scored!

Casual Ftiday came and I looked forward to wearing these new to me jeans to the office. Imagine my horror – oh yes – the absolute terror of discovering that I had invested in a pair of floodwater pants. Oh no! What had I done?

Floodwater pants are pants that are a little too short. When I was in school, anyone who wore those pants was called Noah and the follow-up to that nickname would be, ‘Are you expecting a flood?’ Get it? This was how we teased people with their pants too high off the ground. We never said anything when they were wearing shorts. Our ‘genius’ never thought that far ahead.

Anyway, here I was with a pair of jeans that had been owned by a woman with shorter legs than mine. That in itself was a wonder, but the problem was I was embarrassed to wear the floodwater pants. I loved them, but I thought the only way to salvage the situation would be to cut them and hem them and turn them into capri pants/clam diggers/whatever you want to call them.

My weird adventure wasn’t over. I was out Easter shopping for the grandkids and as I wandered through the mall – not shopping for me, but I saw the word sale – I went into Reitmans, the women’s clothing store that I used to love when I was younger. As I was poking around in there, you will never guess what I saw.

Are you ready for it? There was this big sign announcing the hottest trend for spring. They called them… haha… ankle jeans. Ankle jeans! Do you know what ankle jeans are? They are… drum roll… floodwater pants. Yes, I kid you not! This smiling model was standing there in a photo sporting trendy and expensive floodwater pants and nobody was teasing her and she wasn’t even embarrassed. Every kid that ever got teased in school Is either sighing with relief or shaking a fist in outrage.

The point of my silly true story is this: never judge your whole life by something negative that happens to you. Don’t throw in the towel even though you may feel like it. Don’t entertain thoughts that life is not worth living because of your circumstances.

A situation can flip the other way at the snap of a finger. It can change in five minutes or in one day or sometimes in a succession of days or weeks. It changes! You can’t see that from here. None of us are privy to what is just around the corner and because we can’t see that, sometimes a thought comes that this is all there is and all there ever will be.

The adventure of my embarrassing floodwater pants turned hot and trendy ankle jeans is a silly little story, but it illustrates the point. Something happens and you think life is always going to be one way. You think that some bad thing that happened to you is going to define your whole life.

But it does not! I don’t care what the situation is. I’ve experienced and witnessed some pretty bad things. I’ve had circumstances beyond my control that would seriously curl your hair. The cloud hung over my head for a time, but then… it flipped! Something changed. Often, something sudden happened as a catalyst for that and then I would see things start to shift and turn a whole different direction.

Yes, there were times when I wanted to give up. I confess with all transparency that there were times in my life when I did not want to keep living. Pushing through that junk took some doing. I prayed through it, told my own thoughts to stop that and on occasion, sought help from a friend or counselor. Today, I can tell you, I’m grateful to have made it through. I’m glad I didn’t have the option of asking a doctor to help me kill myself (allowing depressed people that option is irresponsible).

Life is good. It’s not a cake walk, but it’s good. Please hold on and fight for your right to peace of mind, joy, hope , love and freedom from the torment of despair.

You never know. The floodwater pants that you don’t want to wear today may become the hot trendy ankle pants of tomorrow. So don’t give up, okay? The world is better with you in it. Don’t roll your eyes at me. It really is. You are supposed to be here.