When I was young, my hair was the color of certain kinds of red maples this time of year. It stood out. Church ladies whispered that it must be dyed because it was so vivid, and every boy who wrote in my senior yearbook remarked about my hair. I thought the church ladies were euphemistically criticizing my looks in general, and I thought the boys were just being kind. In those days, anything that set me apart was cause for alarm and only increased my shyness and pushed me further inward. Now that my hair is more the color of dried leaves than the October Glory it used to be, I think back and wish I had appreciated my hair and learned to blossom a little. So when I see an insecure kid I want to get in her face and tell her to embrace her differences, that she is beautiful and not to be afraid to shine. The crunch of dry brown leaves comes soon enough.
4 comments:
Or in my case Gail, snow on the roof.
It's strange, but what I am getting about the things I was too insecure to appreciate in my youth is not regret, but gratitude for what I have now.
I enjoy my patience, the texture of my skin and my senses. I don't worry about my lack of energy or my age spots or what I'm missing that I might have caught before. Enjoy, you are beautiful right here, right now.
I don't know when it happened, but somehow I'm kind of where Cat is - very comfortable with myself. I'm still working on some things like my fitness (because I want to do more). I was pretty self-conscious as a teenager back in the 1960's but that's all disappeared now. I'm thankful for the way things have turned out.
That snowy roof look is great on men, Don! I am not as confident as either of you, Cat and Debbie, but I certainly care less as I get older. Not sure that's a good thing, but there it is. I need to care more about my fitness, too, Debbie, because, like you, I want to do LOTS more!
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