The Girl with the White Bow

Do you ever feel ugly? Or invisible? Or both... like you're invisible because you're ugly? Well, that sums up how I felt about myself growing up. I will be kind to myself, as a child, I won't say I was ugly... but looking back I did have some very, very awkward years. Mom knew I was shy as a child. And she knew my self-esteem was low. This was a story she told me many, many times over the years. I don't think she made it up, but I have no other sources to give you. All I can say is this is my retelling of what my Mom told me.

There was a little girl. She was poor. She was dressed in rags. Her hair was dirty. One day she was walking down the street and found a beautiful white bow on the ground. She picked it up, looked around and saw no one that it might belong to. She thought it was so beautiful. She ran to a store window and tied the bow in her hair and admired her reflection. She felt so beautiful. She turned and started walking down the street with her head held high. And every person she passed turned and looked at the beautiful, beaming girl. Little did she know the bow had fallen out after she had only taken a few steps.

This was my mother's way of telling me to hold my head high, that beauty was more than what you look like, and now as an adult I see it was her version of "confidence is sexy" but she told it in a way a child could understand.

So on days we feel less than pleased with our looks... fat day, hat hair day, big PMS pimple day... whatever the day... we need to remember to put on our white bows, hold our heads up, and we need to shine.