Reflection

 

When someone else accepts you, that’s when you begin to see yourself through their eyes. And you begin to realize that there may actually be many qualities to like about yourself.

-Natsuki Takaya

Being with other widows...even 5 years later...is truly such an example of this quote.

Daily and monthly I meet those who received that knock on the door or were forced to say goodbye far too soon, and within each one I see myself.


As one wise widow once told me, meeting another widow for the first time is like looking in the mirror. But not just seeing a reflection,  but seeing who you are and what you've become..good and bad.


But as the years pass, I see in each one of them acceptance, my past, my future, my present, the love, and the knowledge that one day, another will come along and be able to see the same.


To finally measure how far they've come and all they've survived.


The ability to see that you are perfect the way you are and that how you have and are living your life is accepted, cherished and celebrated by those who know the feat to have come that far.


I'm grateful for those that accepted me when I didn't want to accept myself. Those that held up the mirror when I was to frightened to look at it. Those that allow me to love me.