CRITICAL

Unedited.

Right off my phone. 

The baby is absolutely wonderful.

She is my nephew, Tyler's little one. 

RhileyAnne. 

Happy, easygoing, alert, just beautiful. 

Goodness, how I love littles.

I could not wait to get my hands on her. 

to coo, and tickle, and listen to her little baby squeak noises. 

then i look at the picture 

AND

There is Mama T. 

at first the little voices said.

look at the chinS. 

look at ALL that grey.

Wrinkles ---check those out too. 

Oh and those reading glasses - perched on my head so I can keep up with them.

Why the crap do we do this to ourselves? 

Why do we zoom in on the stuff we see as negative?

Why do we measure ourselves again some unrealistic something? 

So I tried to look again -

This time with eyes that were a little more gentle with the interpretation of details.

And I was able to see. 

A thick thick head of hair that I love being long enough to pull up when I can run. 

or can feel a loved one get a hand in (Rhiley did just that - holding onto a tendril as we snuggled up - and that is a wonderful feeling)

Eyes lit up as I gazed into her eyes. 

Wrinkles forming little laugh line grooves. (laughter is so good for the soul)

Look how I am smiling. Genuine. Open. Honest. 

And that tiny hand on my face. 

When I think about that, I can still feel it. 

I've seen people who post a lot of "selfies"

Often those people make me feel like "hey check me out, I look so good" 

I don't feel that about myself at all.

But I am learning to tell my critical eye to look again.

To see that I really am very happy. 

And in my mind.

I'm making peace with the image on the screen.

This is something we ALL need to do.

Like that person in the picture

and in the mirror. 

Sound in if you like --- but only about how you are silencing the critical voice that says you're not good, pretty, thin, muscular, ------------enough. 

tell me how you are happy with the image in the mirror or on the screen.