Turn That Frown Upside Down

I've been working at getting more photos of me doing stuff with the family. I tend to hide behind the camera. We all know that I am there, but the only proof is that someone obviously was taking photos. I did this because a friend of mine, (you know who you are), made a comment on her blog about it. She said it very eloquently, but I'll paraphrase and say "We all know you are turning gray and that your hind end is big." As I said, she was much more eloquent.

Back to the photos. I've had a lot taken in the since August. And I keep noticing something. Wrinkles. I have hundreds of them. I smile and my face crinkles up into hundreds of little wrinkles. Every time I see those crevices, I cringe.

So, today, as I was getting ready for church, I got to looking at myself in the mirror. Yes, I definitely had wrinkles. I smiled. They popped up - bigger than life. Then I tried something - I frowned. No wrinkles. It hit me. I had smiling wrinkles. That means I've smiled so many times that my skin has learned to crinkle in all the right places. Best of all, I obviously don't frown enough for the same thing to happen when I frown!

I am overjoyed that I have smiling wrinkles - well, if I have to have wrinkles, and it appears that I do.

As someone that struggles with depression, I often wonder how I portray myself to others. How my kids see me. Whether I will be remembered as happy or sad or angry or any of those other hundreds of negative emotions that I can feel. Yet, the wrinkles seem to tell it all.

So, on this November 6th, I am thankful for wrinkles in all the right places.

I'm smiling here because my daughter got accepted into Phi Theta Kappa. Proud moment!