“One of the good things about accomplishing something is that it helps your self-image of yourself”- Ann Reinking
It was Monday morning and the first thing I hear is the cooker whistle from the neighboring house. It has become an automated alarm for a person like me who would rather stay in bed, cozy and warm. Just that moment, my mother was waking me up to switch off the water motor as the water was endlessly pouring on the terrace. With blurred eyes, I get off my bed and walk towards the mirror to see how it looks when others see me. Would they think the same? Well, maybe they do, maybe they don’t. But what is bothering me? Probably, the fact that what they say would become how I see myself.
Sometimes I wonder how I would like to describe myself. I am completely saddened that I have more negative thoughts than positive.
Once, I looked straight into the mirror and felt a strange feeling of the person in the mirror staring back at me as though it were a stranger. In school, I would look at every reflecting surface and wonder if ever there is any confidence, the slightest of braveness to be myself in the most testing of situations. There was a time when I would talk back to the reflection and affirm that I am unique. Somewhere along the way, the mist of the outside world covered my true self and made it blank. The girl I saw standing after that was a product of what each one spoke about me. Was I ever willing to wipe the mist? Probably not. The pressure of being what the world wanted me to be was nothing less than being under a rock. It pruned me to be something I was not. Conforming to the world is never the best option when there are existing ideals floating in the air like active bullets that could anytime shoot you from within. The worst is when these ideals are not met; there is another cover over the true self to fulfill these falsely created statements. In the heart of every personality there is a unique, set apart identity that can create magic in the world that has already become grey.
What the world needs is the color of the true self and what the soul needs is the courage to see itself without being tweaked. Hard, I know, but it must be done in order to see the soul that truly lives within. The forest is dark and deep, it may have briars and thorns that block your path as you walk, if we walk over it the chances of it hurting us is high. Life is such, if we are going to walk on the comments and thoughts of what other people think we are, we would completely wipe away our true self-image. Today as I look in the mirror, there is a grateful girl who thanks the Lord that she can see what she has truly been created for. I remember all the times she has been brave, kind, forgiving, strong, loving. Even though it gets weak, the mist has been wiped away from it and the mirror is clear as ice reflecting not what I want to see but what I am.
The best thing I have come to know and learn is that, the most extraordinary thing about myself, I am me and no one else. There is this liberation in knowing that I can only be me and will be!
Comments