You whiten your teeth, slim your face, enlarge your eyes. Raise your cheekbones, resize your earlobes, erase blemishes. Elongate your nose.
Hide those under-eye bags that never seem to go away. Fix your eyebrows. Don’t forget that frown line that showed up in the middle of the night back in 2004.
Right then – that’s when you post your picture for everyone to see.
And they can’t see the melasma that you’ve had since baby number two, and they can’t see the acne scars. They can’t see the double chin or the volcano that always seems to erupt on your jawline.
All they see is a smiling face and the perfect caption that you’ve curated just for this moment:
The perfect mix of humor and candidness.
The perfect mix of wit.
The perfect mix.
Perfect.
They say that comparison is the thief of joy, and I believe it. They say that couples that don’t use social media are around 11% happier* than the couples that do and for good reason –
It’s easy to compare.
It’s easy to dig your own hole.
It’s easy to feel like you just don’t measure up.
It’s easy to forget they are using the filters and the face altering apps that leave them looking ten years younger. It’s easy to forget that your neighbor has his own crosses to bear and hurts to mend and lonely nights, too – because look at how lovely they look at Christmas dinner! Look how amazing she looks at that birthday party!
It’s also so easy to forget about the way we rise in the face of a challenge, or how we show up for people. It’s easy to forget about how we love hard on our kids and try our very best every day.
It’s easy to forget how *good* we are when we’re looking over the fence.
Let’s take a big, deep breath this week. Let’s remember where we come from –
We come from our grandma’s wrinkled, hard-working hands, and our momma’s hearty laugh. We come from our papa’s good manners, and our daddy’s big heart.
We come from more than a blemish eraser and a face brightener.
Let’s remember that.
xoxo, B.
rebeccacooperauthor 