“Wow! I look so pretty,” she squealed with excitement. “I love they way my hair is tucked behind my ears. It looks good,” she continued.
Those were the first words that came out of her mouth when she saw this year’s school picture for the first time. There was no rumblings of a hair being out of place or her dress not fitting the way she wanted to. It was only positive. All smiles.
It’s amazing how something that might seem so insignificant to some has such a huge impact on others. Do you want to know the first thing that I do when I look at a photo of myself? I look for things that are wrong. I look for the negative. I tell myself that I look fat or that my makeup looks bad. Very rarely have I ever looked at a photo of myself and a positive thought was the first thing to pop in my head. And sadly, I know I wasn’t always this way.
I know I used to have the mindset that Harlan does. The one that sees the greatness in all. The one that looked at myself in the mirror and saw a strong, confident, and beautiful little girl. So what happened?
I grew up.
Life happened.
As we walk through this journey of life there are so many things that stand in our way to help cast that shadow of doubt and negativity on us. Soon this shadow looms so much over us that we start to believe the opposite of what we once thought. We give into the negativity. It breaks us down.
I know that this innocence that Harlan has won’t be with her forever. And while I can’t to anything to shield her from the negativity that will inevitably come her way, what I can do is teach her to continue with her confidence. I can be that positivity that she needs when she starts to have doubts. I can be that example of positivity within my own self so that she has something to learn from. I need to take this guidance from her now so that she can see it later.
It’s amazing how much so few words can mean so much. Wouldn’t it be nice if we all just saw the beautiful?
