MIrror-Mirror

I just finished an article in the May 2012 issue of Whole Living Magazine about a woman who decided not to look at her reflection for a month.  It was hard.

It's funny, because I'm sitting in a five star hotel at present with my family on the government's tab surrounded by mirrors and reflections.  A huge window.  Full-length mirrors on all sides.  An entire wall in the bathroom.  A desk I an see myself inside.

It's funny, because I was just thinking before reading the article how much fun it was to do ballet and yoga in front of the mirror with my daughter.  To see the length of my legs.  The flash of my brand new jeans.  The blemishes and wrinkles that have come to identify as me.

While I read about this woman who decided to stop looking in the mirror so that she could focus on The Moment instead of how she looked living it, I pondered the practice of deeper reflection of moments in the mirror.

Maybe it's the artist in me.  I love to make faces in the mirror.  I love to take photographs.  I love to paint pictures.  Images.  I'm fascinated with how we look to ourselves versus how we look to others.  How my daughter exclaims at the braid down her back or my son flexes his muscles or my husband shaves his head and trims his beard.

I wonder what it would be like if we couldn't see ourselves.  I wonder if this woman's experiment was worth it.  What would it change in me?  What would it change in you, if you could no longer see your own reflection?