Butterfly in the Mirror

I have a friend I have known my whole life, although for a period in my life we were never really friends and I thought I would write today's blog for her.

Hello Friend,
       I do not have to call you by name, for when you read this you will know that I am talking to you.  I have know you since I can remember.  When I was small I often played hide and seek with you at my mother's dressing table and you were there in the middle of the night when the branches outside my windows turned into a giant's arms, raking its long fingers across the window panes.
      As I grew older I also grew to like you less and less.  You were so shy, you were a real pain to be around, always pulling faces at the camera and the slowest athlete ever!  Why you had to be in my life was beyond my understanding, I did not even like to think about you and often wished you were somebody else.
I always got irritated with you when you could not get something right.  You always seemed to mess everything up.  I would often refrain from trying something because I just knew that you would not succeed and then everyone would laugh and point a finger.
       It often seemed as if nobody liked me and I blamed you for it.  Then one day I came face to face with the realisation that I will have to change my attitude towards you, because then only will peoples’ attitude towards me start changing, it was as if they could sense that I did not really like you very much.  I started noticing how funny you could be and how people reacted when you smiled at them and I thought to myself that there must be something good there after all.  I started to enjoy being with you.  I realised you were quite clever in your own right and very creative.   I also saw that you were kindhearted,caring and sincere.
      Suddenly it was as if I saw you for who you were for the first time and I started valuing your presence in my life.  You were somebody I could always count on.  I could actually look you in the eye and admit that you are one great and very special human being, not such a total loser as I have suspected you to be all these years.  I was not ashamed of you any more and my children love you and my husband thinks you are the best, but more important than their opinion of you, is mine.  I love you and I am so glad that we are friends today, after all, without you I'd be nothing, because you are ME.

Eleanor Roosevelt said : "Friendship with oneself is all-important, because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else. 

If you flutter by here please feel free to share the one characteristic of yourself that you value the most.  To comment just click on the words "no comment" or "1 comment" and follow the link, I would love to hear from you.