Does This Outfit Go With My Vocation?

The main reason I started this blog is because I’m on a very specific Catholic journey—the discernment of joining a women’s religious community.   Yes, becoming a nun or a sister.  And even though I’m 40 years old and it’s something I’ve considered for a long time, I’ve definitely got some things to work through.  One issue I’ll call the fashion exclusion clause.  You’ve probably noticed that many nuns wear monochromatic habits.  It has to do in part with a vow of poverty.  Then there are those who, in these post-Vatican II days, often are “cleverly disguised” (as the actress in a recent stage performance of Late Night Catechism put it) “as your aunt.”  The sisters in the “aunt” group who I know wear a lot of long polyester skirts in floral prints and pastels, and sensible shoes—something like an orthopedic tennis shoe, but often black or taupe.  The closest thing I have to a floral print is a bright white sundress with spaghetti straps and hot pink flowers.  One time when I wore it, a young woman literally squealed and said, “Do you feel like the queen of the world when you wear that?”  Well, yes.  I have coveted well-made red Italian stilettos in my time in shop windows of Paris and New York City, even if I’ve only purchased a few pairs of heels over the years.  I own a small rainbow of nail polishes. Last year I dyed my hair fuchsia.  You see my dilemma. I’m not a super serious fashionista.  I definitely have a lot of plain Jane long skirts in my closet and love my dark cozy boots in the winter.  But I sometimes wonder how I’d fit in to a community of plainclothes women.  It’s probably just one of those things I’ll have to let God work on--that same God who created all the fantastic colors that exist and who gave me the predilection for picking them off the rack.