She looked at me with tired eyes and said,
“Sometimes I look in the mirror and I don’t recognize the face looking back.”
I’ve had my own similar encounters with the looking glass over the years.
And here, on the eve of my 41st birthday, I am becoming more and more aware of how I view my own reflection.
How I have seen my reflection.
How I will see it in the years ahead.
And how this has changed over the years.
Our mirrors have their own life cycles.
When we are very young, we don’t have time to pause in front of mirrors. We are far too busy and focused on more important things. Like playing and being with our friends.
So, our Mommas remind us to comb our hair and check our outfits, because we have not bothered to take a look at our bed heads or mismatched, untucked ensemble.
A few years go by and we begin to discover that we care about how we look.
We stand in front of our mirrors and admire our new hairstyle. We turn and spin and look over our shoulder, on the left, on the right to see our new outfit and whether it looks best with flats or boots.
And then we are overwhelmed with the knowledge that we suddenly care about how others think we look.
And our mirrors now become more than a reflection, our mirrors turn into comparisons. Our mirrors create opportunities for us to criticize.
And then it changes. Or how we look at it … changes.
And it no longer shows us what we are.
Instead, we can only see everything that we are not. And surely someone else is.
The color of our hair. The shape of our eyes. The size of our nose. Our complexion. Our height. Our weight.
We give these mirrors so much power during these years.
Power to push us forward and power to hold us back.
But if we are lucky, eventually, we find a way out of its grasp, we take back the power and we move on.
And then, if we become a Tired Working Momma, the mirror becomes irrelevant for a few many years.
The mirror disappears again for a time.
Because we don’t have time to stop and look in a mirror. We are far too busy and focused on the important things … again.
We are busy looking into the eyes of our babies and on the piles of laundry.
We are busy looking after toddlers and checking over homework.
We are busy going to games and running schedules.
And for years, this goes on.
Life.
Life goes on.
Until it settles down, every now and then,… or 50 years later.
And we stop and really look in the mirror again.
Which is why we are surprised sometimes by what we see.
And we think we miss what was once there. The reflection that we saw before.
Before years. Before years of life.
Before kids. Before kids full of life.
That image in the mirror that we come to notice, an image that may have more wrinkles. More gray hairs. More pounds.
But what it doesn’t show, is really us. As we still see ourselves.
So if we look closely, there is a more accurate reflection all around us.
For me, I see myself better in Y.
In her profile. In her smile. In her words. In her attitudes. In her personality. In her style. In her flair.
She is my mirror.
A mirror I can trust.
And for the record, …
A mirror that comes full circle.
She was beautiful.
She is beautiful.
We have to look. We have to see. We have to believe.
Yes. You. All of YOU… really are the fairest of them all.

Thanks for coming with me on this 41 day journey.
It’s been magic.
Let’s all, Go. Do that.
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