Unexpectedly, that old feeling of “not enough” settled in her spirit like a dark cloud. She tried to shake it loose, but it persisted. 

“I always thought these were smile lines,” she thought, “but according to these brochures, you can fill them in with medical jelly and make them go away!! And then, it’s like you never smiled at all! 

“Which is good?”   

“I don’t know…” 

A still small voice surfaced from within asking, “What legitimately defines your self-worth?” 

• Is it numbers on a scale? 
• Pictures attractively and creatively displayed in brochures and magazines? 

These are the world’s crazy standards by which many of us are literally starving ourselves and cutting ourselves open to comply with?

Then that still small voice within whispered, “They are all lies.”

Who the hell came up with a “parenthesis” anyways? 

We all have smile lines. I have smile lines.

I smile because I am happy! 

Our world can deal with it.

#self-worth, #value, #weight, #facialparentheses, #WhoamI, #corevalues, #legacy