Our mirrors are mirrors that could never be, that’s why they lie to us.
That mirror in your hallway could never amount to anything. See, its not a component in a space telescope and its not surrounded in a pure gold frame and hung on the walls of Versailles. It is an ordinary, cheap, generic mirror.
Your mirror gets jealous. It sees you in your beauty and becomes envious. It forms a plan to play with your mind. As you stand there and examine your face and your clothing the mirror goes to work. You realize that you are standing there longer than usual and you try to find out what you are so stumped on. The mirror is winning now. You touch your hands to your face and you look perplexed. Your hands drop to your waist and you turn to the side. Your shoulders fall forward and you begin to think that maybe its a bad hair day, maybe this outfit looked better on you before you gained a little bit of weight. You feel like you went from beautiful and confident to insecure and ugly in a matter of moments. As you walk away with your head down the mirror grins. If this mirror cannot be a beautiful success, than neither can you.
You have a long day at work and you come home to the quietness of your apartment. You feel accomplished and someone even said that you looked nice today. Your spirits are high and your mirror takes notice. Your mind and your mirror meet once more, and this time the mirror goes to work must faster. Maybe that person was paying you a compliment out of pity or maybe you are truly insignificant in your work place. You stand in front of this mirror with a single tear cascading down your face. The mirror has some leverage now. You are falling apart even faster than expected.
You wake up and choose to not look in the mirror, after all it is Saturday, who do you have to impress? I’m sure your cat won’t mind a little bedhead and smeared make-up. You are feeling average and the sun is bright. It shines off of that mirror and it catches your eye. You walk over to the mirror and see yourself, un-edited and natural. You smile and the mirror reflects its own opinion. You feel like you look terrible now. You run your fingers through your hair and wipe your under eyes. You shake you head and walk away.
Then as you sit all alone, you start to think about how ugly you must be. After all you’re alone. You begin to cry because you feel worthless and unwanted. This mirror is basking in its success right now. Your tears are its Champaign. It celebrates. Amid your tearful thoughts you hear something in your innermost being, “You are fearfully and wonderfully made.”
You walk to this mirror once more and your mind begins to connect with it again. You stop this near-connection and say, “I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” Over and over again you say this to yourself. You begin to feel beautiful and your confidence skyrockets. You take that mirror and you go outside. You raise it above your head, preparing to slam it to the ground. But something stops you. You walk inside and grab a marker from your refrigerator calendar and you write on this mirror.
“You are fearfully and wonderfully made.”
This mirror can no longer mock you, you own it now. Every time it goes to play tricks on your mind it will have to scream louder than those words you just wrote. And it will not be able to.
You hang the mirror up once more and walk away. You are winning now.
Aris
Legends of Youth: 