A { Reflection } on Your { Reflection }: Lessons from My Son

With a prompt like mirrors, I’m sure some of my fellow prompters are going to get deep and reflective (pun totally intended), but I’m going to take a more practical approach. I think we have forgotten that mirrors are nothing more than reflective glass. They only show you what’s right in front of them.

One day, I tried counting how I many times I used a mirror. I was amazed how many times I walked by and checked myself without even realizing what I was doing. Sure, we wake up to a mirror to brush our teeth, put on our makeup, fix our hair. We have decorative mirrors on our walls to make our rooms feel bigger. We use the mirrors in the gym and fitness classes to make sure we’re using proper form. We drive with three mirrors to check our surroundings on the road. We use them to take selfies and pics of our kids at the playground.

So many practical uses and yet the topic of mirrors brings most people to a deeper, darker mental state. A place where we shame ourselves because we don’t like what we see on the other side. The truth is, we make mirrors the bad guy when they are just doing their job.

But not everyone sees mirrors that way.

My son walked into my room last week and walked by my full length mirror. He caught his reflection out of the corner of his eye, smiled and backed up in front of the mirror. He then started making funny faces and giggling and jumping back and forth in front of the mirror to “scare” himself. Every time he saw his reflection, he smiled.

Kids have an amazing way at putting things that we dwell on in true perspective. I have never seen a child cry when they see their reflection. They literally love to look at themselves. They don’t look for pimples, age marks, wrinkles, fat, or grey hairs. Kids are simply just excited to see what they look like.

Mirrors show us what we look like to the outside world, show an exact reflection of the individual standing in front of it, which is amazing if you really think about it. Your reflection is yours and only yours. Learn to love it!