Experience everything like a child. When I read this recently, I thought to myself how unrealistic that was. It’s easy to remember hiding from monsters in the dark when I was young, but when I started to think about it, I realized it takes more work than that.
I realized that feeling everything like the first time takes concentration.
When you go to the beach, feel every grain of sand wash over your feet like the first time you ever felt its warmth. Try to remember the first time you were aware of the sun on your back.
What is now familiar was once a miracle and one of the only consistently blissful moments anyone can experience in life. It still is, but we don’t realize it. Think about how every little creature made you wonder, and cling to those questions like a keepsake, remembering the many intricacies that make up an instant in time.
I always remember breathing the aroma of White Rain hairspray filling the room while my mom so intricately tucked each curl away. I watched her the whole time she was getting ready, watching her breath fog up the mirror as she leaned in to spread the plum-colored lipstick across her mouth.
I never saw her covering her flaws. I saw someone so gentle and patient, treating herself like a work of art rather than a work in progress.
I often am too hard on myself and have to remember thoughts like this. I think all women are beautiful, but I seldom see it in my own eyes. It’s a lot like when someone’s beauty gleams in their smile or their grace is shown by the way they hold a pen or a book. We’re in a society that preaches vanity is pointless, yet it’s all we focus on.
We obsess over all the little flaws and problems, but life isn’t about struggling. It’s about finding the little things that make it life.
If you could live every day twice, what would you do? My advice would be not to think of the things you would change but rather the details you would pay attention to and the smiles of those around you. Experience your emotions like the first time, each time.
Feel everything intensely and profoundly. Let it overcome you. Beauty is in the purity of knowing every second of your life and living it.
Even in pain, let it be a reminder of the heart you have to break and how grateful you are for the life it brings, beating through everything you thought would kill you.
Your life may not be clear, but it’s yours and the very possession of it makes you worthy of anything you could imagine. Everything ephemeral still holds the potential to be everlasting if you remember with such sweet veracity.
CHLOE FORBES
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