Let me tell you a little secret about Len. Although he was a retired navy man, he resisted rules and structure with almost everything in him….
And his wife is wired very similarly…
And so even though they could dress up for a Navy event like the best of them, Len and Marcia individually and even more so together, were a very free-spirited couple! 
And so you can imagine that when they moved into a neighborhood that was an association and realized there was a rule for every situation in the book, Len set out to defy the association rules in many shapes and forms. It was the little things of how your cars could be parked to their dislike for his home-made light poles…
And so I had to smile this last week when my sweet niece Sonta posted this on Facebook:
my mother painted the front door yellow and she got a fine for painting it yellow and because it stands out. so we have to paint it a different color by the 22. how are we supposed to express ourselves
I do believe there is a place for structure and order, but I love that my niece, an adopted child of these two free-spirited, loving adults, has enough gumption in her to ask such a critical question. How are we supposed to express ourselves…
I hope and pray that she never stops expressing herself in yellow doors and homemade light poles…
I hope and pray that our culture does not rob us of expression by rules of uniformity…
I have a hunch that any child, born or embraced in the household of Len and Marcia, will never lose their ability to express themselves and for that I am forever grateful.
I hope each of you will ask that very simple and honest question every day you wake up to impact your world….just how will you express yourself today?
Good reminder Trish.