Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Long ago, far away

My mother hated me looking like this. She wanted me to get my "stringy" hair cut and get a perm. This picture was taken on my trip home after my first husband and I split. Posted by Picasa
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2 comments:

  1. Outburst8:20 AM

    This is something I'm trying to teach myself not to do, focus on the negatives.
    My wife says I constantly have a complaint about dinner, saying something like, "It's very good but should have more of this or less of that."
    It becomes a form of emotional pestering after a while and no doubt degrades the person's happiness.
    Nowadays, I try to swallow my food and smile, saying "It's very good."

    I hope that you can look at that picture with pride, knowing you were a very pretty young woman. I am beginning to understand myself how fleeting youthful beauty is and how we don't often appreciate it until it's gone.
    I suppose that's one of life's little ironies.

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  2. wordsonwater9:19 PM

    My daughter looked at me one day, not so long ago, and said, “Mom, I never realized how pretty you are.” Okay, maybe that was the day when she realized she looked like me, but still, it was a treasure that she gave me, saying those sweet words. When she was growing to womanhood, I did my best to teach her that appearances are deceiving and the most beautiful person can rest inside a less than perfect shell, and she learned that lesson well. She is not only compassionate, she is as pretty as I was, but with a confidence and poise that I never processed.

    The girl you see in this picture was blown in the wind of everyone else’s opinion. The woman that I am now has a truer beauty that she ever owned. I guess I have some pride in the girl I was, or I wouldn’t have posted the picture, but I would never go back and be her if it meant giving up one minute of what I’ve learned. My parents taught me pride was a sin, along with a lot of other crap I no longer believe. I suppose life’s true irony is the thing we want the most in life is often the one thing we can’t have. I have decided to be content that my children tell me I am wise, strong, and beautiful, and forgive my dead parents for never considering it a possibility.

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