What if we learned to celebrate our differences rather than shy away from them? Truthfully, when I look at you, I don’t want to see a reflection of me. I want to see you. I want to see the things in you that are different than me. I want to hear your stories, I want to see your scars, I want to know what makes you different than me.
Why are we, as a society, so concerned with being the same? What can we learn from our similarities? Similarities do not stimulate us. Differences do not have to separate us, yet we tend to view them that way.
What can we learn from our reflection? Most often, what we see reflected back to us, we naturally reject. We don’t look for the beauty, we reject the imperfections. We judge ourselves harshly when we don’t like what we see.
To all of my friends with sweet, impressionable children, may I remind you that they are watching you. When they see you reject yourself in the mirror, they learn to reject what they see also. When they see you deflect a compliment, they don’t learn to graciously accept compliments either. They are watching you at all times. They hear the things you say about other people and they learn to reject what you reject.
Today, can I encourage you to celebrate differences?
