Mirror, Mirror On The Wall
Today marks the first of another blogger swap series. For the next four weeks I'll be trading some blog posts with Terésa at All4Speakers. So if you want what I wrote you'll have to hop on over there to get it. Don't forget to be polite and leave lots of loving comments and when you come see me be sure to poke around her stuff as well. :)
As you probably could imagine there was fifteen (give or take) 4 year old ballerina hopefuls in pink leotards, standing on their designated blue tape with soft pink ballet shoes. All heads with their hair pulled back in slick buns turned facing the teacher with her gentle but commanding voice, as she painstakingly tries to instruct and demonstrate a chasse, or an allegro… all heads but one.
My 4 year old ballerina’s head was facing a different direction. The direction of the mirror. She sat studying herself. At first it was just a subtle straightening of her back, and then shifting into a slouch. Then a head dip to the side and then the other side. I knew what was coming next. I was inwardly wishing her to turn her head, to pay attention to her teacher, to do anything but what she was about to do next. Like slow motion, she stuck her tongue out. But it wasn’t any old quick tongue stick. No, this took both hands as she contorted her face pulling at her cheeks and nose.
“Belle.” was all she heard from her teacher, and she recoiled. Where mischief was before now was placed with the angelic.
Many things have been said of mirrors. Two of my favorite quotes being:
“Books are those faithful mirrors that reflect to our mind the minds of sages and heroes.”
~Edward Gibbon
I love the idea of this. The same images that once danced through Jane Austen's mind embed themselves to mine through her written words.
“The whole purpose of [this life] is to turn mirrors into windows”
~Sydney J Harris
When we are born we are very selfish beings naturally. We have our every whim attended to and desires met. Selfishness is something that needs to trained out of us by cognizant parents or even ourselves, and thoughtfulness put in it’s place.
When we look in mirrors, both physically and figuratively, quite often we don’t like what we see. But it’s important to see what is beyond those mirrors. To see the people around us. To learn from them. To serve them.
I tease my husband, “Do you want me to put on your headstone--‘I wish I would have watched more sports’?” Well, I don't want my headstone to say, “I wish I had thought about 'me' less.”
Of course, my mom has said, “If I don’t have mirrors in the house. Then I don’t have to be upset with what I see.”
I guess we could go with that too.
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