Happenstance

This is another of those posts that has nothing to do with the farm, but simply to do with life.

Today was quite eventful with my son finally getting his blue belt, after an extended time as green belt due to extraneous circumstances.  (Two broken bones, not at the same time, a sprain, bronchitis, the flu, and more. This caused a serious slow down in his progress.)  Now he just has brown to get through before attaining his black belt!

After the happy occasion, my hubby headed off to a guild meeting, the kids went to their dad's, and I had lunch out on my own. I'd been craving Chinese food for days, so I went to my favorite hole-in-the-wall and had an amazing lunch for not much money, and afterward headed to the grocery store.

About three quarters of the way through this adventure (Ha!) as I was putting some frozen veggies in my cart, a gentleman came up to talk to me.  I had passed him a time or two already, a few aisles back.  He looked a little bit lost or nervous, I couldn't tell which, so I waited thinking he wanted to ask some random question like "do you know where the okra is?" or something like that.  I was completely taken aback when he smiled very nervously and said "I've never done this before, but I have to say this because if I get hit by a bus tomorrow I'd regret not telling you that you are the most amazingly beautiful woman I have ever seen. I passed you a few aisles back, and just... You have an uncommon beauty..." and here he trailed off.  If he had seemed creepy at all, I would have bolted.  As it was, his nervousness and sincerity just made me smile.

What could I do?  I thanked him, and admitted no one had ever approached me out of the blue to say something like that.  I made a point of flashing my wedding ring and letting him know that my husband does tell me I'm beautiful, but no stranger has ever just come up to me and said that.  It made me smile, and I appreciated that he did take the time to say this.  As I walked away, I couldn't help but reflect on this instance.

I will tell you now that I was simply grocery shopping, and had on jeans and a t-shirt and tennis shoes and I really am not feeling all that well today.  My eyes burn as if I have a fever (not going to check it just in case there is one - I don't want to admit it if I'm actually ill) and my throat is aching, and I've had a headache since I got up this morning.  I did do my hair today - apparently that counts for something.  Really though, no beauty queen here, folks.  To top it off, a few days ago in a fit of absolute upset with myself about myself, I started faithfully logging all of my calories and activities being determined to shed several unwanted pounds.

There has to be a lesson in this.  Perhaps it's just that maybe we should be a little more forgiving with ourselves, about ourselves.  What we see in ourselves isn't necessarily what the rest of the world sees - and we should try to look at ourselves with fresh eyes.

Do me a favor: Go to your mirror and look at yourself and try to see what others see, whether they know you or not.  You may just see a beautiful person staring back at you.  :-)