Written by Nandini Sethi
When I look into the mirror,
I see:
Frizzy hair and textured skin,
Broken nails and a crooked grin.
When I look into the mirror,
I see:
A fat nose and unshaped brows,
Crow’s feet and fine lines.
Yesterday,
As my 5 -year-old son and I flicked through old photo albums,
I realized the days of my youthful exuberance were gone;
I was no longer the thinnest, prettiest, most fashionable person in the room.
“Mom! You were so boo-yoo-ti-ful”,
My son enunciated every syllable carefully,
Pointing towards my flat stomach and glowing skin,
In the faded photograph that I wished to tear.
I preoccupied myself with productive thoughts:
There was laundry left to do and dinner was left undone.
In a haste I cleaned the kitchen, the living room,
And the bathroom, where I broke down.
The good and bad thing about time,
Is that it passes too quickly;
The overwhelming sense of nostalgia can be choking,
But it does heal old wounds.
One bad day becomes a long night,
One long night changes into a mild week,
And one mild week becomes a happy month;
In the overall scheme of things, I truly did get over my insecurities.
That’s why when I was knitting in the bedroom today,
I didn’t expect my son to come up to me,
Stuff a flat pillow under his shirt and say to me,
“Look mommy, I’m as boo-yoo-ti-ful as you!”
I was mesmerized by the way his mind works,
And also a little proud of myself for teaching him this,
That when you look into the mirror,
Beauty does lie in the eye of the beholder.
