laugh lines

Last night I looked through a set of freshly uploaded photos, and cringed when I came to this one. It was a (very) impromptu (sp?) session I'd set up with D while we were playing. As you can see, not much thought went into the set-up... he happened to be hanging out at his shelf, right where I've put mirrors on the wall that faced him, and I had the camera in the room so I attempted to click away at some mom-and-baby photos. Some turned out ok, many have really awkward composition, but they still came out kinda neat. But, what made me cringe about this one was seeing the seemingly (to me, anyway-- we're our own worst critics, right?) massive wrinkles at my eyes. Yes, I'm laughing, but still. I cringed. We live in a society that sees wrinkles as unattractive signs of old age (another unattractive thing on its own) and I can see that I have internalized that attitude to at least some degree.

But then I remembered a card I'd seen on Postsecret just this past Sunday:

When I look at the photo again with this new sentiment in mind, I do not see wrinkles anymore, but a mother overjoyed with her darling son. I almost want to print out that postcard and keep it displayed somewhere, as a reminder to wear fine lines and wrinkles as badges of a life lived so, so well and all the blessings I've been granted in life so far.