Audrey Hepburn Was Smart

Earlier this week, I took a picture and posted it on Instagram.  (Side note:  Do you Instagram?  You can follow me at leishmcd, if you'd like!)  The picture received a hilarious response from a number of friends.  Immediately I thought, "I should blog about this!"  (Anyone surprised?)

Here's the picture I posted.  Warning:  It may scare you.  It may scare small children.  It may scare old ladies.  It may scare puppies and pretty little song birds.  You ready for it?  Here it is...

This, my friends, is what I woke up to one morning.  I rolled out of bed, walked into the bathroom, took one look at myself and thought, "You've got to be kidding me."  WHAT is my hair DOING?  Do I look like I've had a rough night?!

I stood in front of my messy sink--splattered with blue toothpaste and little kid spit--and took a real good look at myself.  The bedhead.  The scrubbed clean face.  The deep crease between my eyebrows.  The subtle "saggies" beneath my chin that indicate I'm "aging."  The scars, the spots, the pimples.  The lines in my neck.  The splotchy chin.  That nose, that nose, that nose!

I admit I felt a tad glum as I thought, "Wow, Aleisha, you are NOT a pretty girl!"  I snapped that picture (because the kooky bedhead was kind of funny), rinsed out the sink, and left the mirror behind.  I didn't even bother to comb/tame my hair.

Walking into the kitchen, I greeted my pajama-clad children.  They were sitting at the table, playing with toys, waiting for me to feed them.  It wasn't long before I noticed their smiles and stares, obviously directed at my head.  Slowly and softly, Lilly began to giggle.  Cam grinned at me with "melt-your-heart" Mater teeth.

"What's so funny?  You guys like my hair?," I asked.

(Goofball chuckles and delirious squeals increased in volume!)

"It's crazy," Lilly answered.  "Cwazy, Ma," replied Cam.

I laughed right along with them and made funny faces, as I poured bowls of Froot Loops and Crunchy Nut cereal.  I sat between my two cackling kiddos, and thought of my favorite Audrey Hepburn quote:  "I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls."

That's when it smacked me in my bedhead head.

I am a pretty girl--sagging "chin flesh" and pimples and splotchy skin and creases and all--because I am a happy girl.  Hello!

Life is about being happy.  It's about seeing the good in the world around us.  It's about counting our blessings and accepting ourselves.  It's about loving ourselves and the people around us--no matter how messy they are, or if they like Elmo, or if they wear diapers!  It's about finding the joy in the every day.  It's about embracing the imperfections that make us so spectacularly unique.  It's about taking a look at ourselves and saying, "I am me.  I am okay.  I am enough."  

My kids and I ate our cereal.  We noisily slurped milk from our bowls.  We giggled.  We balanced our spoons on our noses.  My heart felt light as I looked at Camren and Lilly's faces...

And I thought, I am happy, I am happy, I am happy.