My Mother's Eyes

“For attractive lips, speak words of kindness.
For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people.
For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry.
For beautiful hair, let a child run their fingers through it once a day.
For poise, walk with the knowledge that you never walk alone.
People, more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed. Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you will find one at the end of each of your arms.
As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself and the other for helping others.” ― Sam Levenson

With Thanksgiving fast approaching, I cannot help but to give thanks for life. I used to be a little more diligent about this than I am now. For quite some time I kept a gratitude journal next to my bed and every night I added something new. Our daily lives whiz by in a blur and I think it’s extremely important to begin and end each day grounded in just how blessed we are.

As I began to think about gratitude, my mind wrestled with the fact that there is one thing that I continue to struggle to appreciate, my physical appearance. Isn’t it crazy that for most of us, our shape, size, eye color, hair color, skin texture…just isn’t quite enough?

Over the next week, I’d like you to join me in a gratitude exercise. Take out a piece of paper, post-it note, index card- something portable- and write down 3 things that you like about your physical appearance. Yes, 3 things! You can do it! And just to get you started, I’m going to share mine with you.

1) My eyes. A few years ago, when I had my eye exam, my eye doctor mentioned that I have a beautiful circle of gold around my pupils. Her word beautiful, not mine. Now I have certainly never really noticed anything spectacular about my plain ol’ hazel eyes, yet since she’s mentioned it I sometimes find myself glimpsing in the mirror and thinking “how about that? I do have gold around my pupils, that’s pretty special.”  I also very much appreciate that I have my mother’s eyes. My Mom died when I was 11. I don’t have many memories of her, nor do I particularly resemble her. Yet I definitely have my mother’s eyes, and sometimes when I look into them, I can see her looking back at me.

2) My legs. For the longest time, I viewed my legs as two stumps at the end of my torso, certainly nothing to write home about. Yet as I get older, I truly appreciate all of the work my legs do for me every single day without fail. They’ve carried my weight, no matter my size. They allow me to do fun activities like dancing, Zumba and hiking. My legs have helped me to tirelessly run after my kids, to walk in 5K’s to support a friend or to endlessly explore a pumpkin patch until we found THE perfect pumpkin. My legs might be short, but they’re strong and they support me.

3) My hips. Now this is a tough one. For most of my life, I have really despised my hips. It doesn’t matter how much weight I lose, I have wide hips. My Aunt calls them birthing hips, very funny (not). What I’ve found over the years, is that my hips are just right, just as they are. My Gran was a bigger woman, and I  used to love sitting on her lap and sinking into her curves that were made just for a grandchild to fit into. Well, the same goes for these hips of mine. They balance kids and grocery bags like nobody’s business. My kid’s always fit perfectly perched on one of my hips. I am thankful to have a spot that was meant just for them to snuggle into.

So now it’s your turn. Tonight before you go to sleep or tomorrow morning when you wake up, take some time to reflect about what makes you uniquely you. Write it down. Post those words on your desk or your refrigerator; maybe on your car or bathroom mirror. Read the words out loud. 

Believe them. Live them. Give thanks for them.

Be thankful for who are you, you are just as God created you to be.

Ask for help. Make the choice. Commit to the choice. Continue with courage.

Hugs and friendship,

Tara