I love your face

​There are 7.7 billion different ones.
Faces, that is.
And though there are such things as doppelgängers, even your look-alike differs from you.
Have you ever just sat and contemplated how amazing and unique your face is.
You know that crooked little smile, the one that made your mom’s heart burst with happiness when you were born? The same one you would like to change as an adult.
And those eyebrows. The ones that, as old age approaches, grow wild and randomly towards the bridge of your nose, but sparse on the edges. Those eyebrows raise with delight when you see your grandchildren running towards your front door, but sag a little when you see what time has done to the lines on your face.
The dimples you donned since birth, the ones that everyone commented on as you were growing up, now take a different path as they have merged with newly formed wrinkles.
Those blue eyes that twinkle back at you in the mirror when you think of your loved ones, and line with moisture when you think of those gone from sight—those eyes have witness true miracles for your entire lifetime. They have seen birth and death, love and loss, mountains and oceans, the changing of the leaves and snowflakes tumbling to earth.
Your lips, the ones that formed your first words as a toddler, locked with your first boyfriend under the football stadium, kissed your husband on your wedding day and pressed against the forehead of your newborn baby years ago, are now much thinner. You notice the feathery lines around their edge as you draw your lip pencil around them to form an outline. Maybe this miracle plumping lipstick will work it’s magic.
It doesn’t.
Gravity has also done a number on your neck. No amount of creams, potions, lotions or collagen serum will cause the looseness to tighten—only a surgeon can help now.
You sigh, and take another look.
She is beautiful. That face staring back in the mirror is perfect.
She has kind eyes.
Her lips speak of love.
Her neck tosses her head back when she laughs and bows her head when she is praying.
That thing she does with her eyebrows when she is happy and playful is heartwarming.
She is one of a kind.
One of a kind out of 7.7 billion.
“You must’ve been a beautiful baby, but baby...look at you now.”
You. Are. Exquisite.
Paula Estelle Jackson 10-8-19

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