MAKEUP, RACE, AND OVEN MITTS
Long before my family and I sat at the dinner table overlooking
a spread of macaroni and cheese, turkey, dressing, kale, cranberry sauce, and
potato salad, I felt thankful. It seemed a month-long theme, which I had summed
up with this list: Makeup, race, and oven mitts. I’ll explain it.
A week before Thanksgiving, I had a casual conversation with
a friend. We discussed makeup. Now, she’s pretty without it, but I reach for my
undereye concealer to take a brisk walk! The conversation veered to something
more essential than covering up one’s dark eye circles, though. It was about
embracing who we are on the inside.
The next day, as I shopped for skincare, still aware of
yesterday’s conversation, a woman carrying an assortment of wrinkle creams and cleansers
asked my opinion about the products she contemplated over. We both concluded that
finding the right item for our needs was quite a chore. “In the end,” the woman
said, “it’s all going to sag. It’s about what’s on the inside anyway.”
Was the universe trying to tell me something?
The day after Thanksgiving, my family and I went for a brisk
walk. My daughter Faith was more concerned about beating her dad at a race he’d
promised her. As they took off, I could see them both trying their hardest to
pass the other.
“Who won?” I asked when I caught up to them. My daughter
happily announced herself as the victor, raising her arm high into the air. My
husband was winded, bent over with his palms planted on his knees. A moment
later, I asked my daughter how’d she do it. She calmly said, “I paced myself. I
did exactly what he’d told me to do.”
It was a metaphor for many of life’s issues.
MAKEUP: Make sure to beautify your heart. Be willing to
empathize with others, judge less, love more, be kinder.
RACE: Pace yourself through life, projects, relationships,
and even the awareness to slow down and rest.
OVEN MITTS: Life’s intensity can feel like an inferno, but
we are protected and don’t have to carry a load of turmoil, grief, and sadness.
We can cover ourselves with all that elevates us to press on.
I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Let the warm
thoughts continue through the rest of the year and into 2021!
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