Are you brave enough to change your lens?

So the other day, when I was getting ready, I shrieked in delight. My husband, surprised to see me so chipper before my morning coffee, ran in and said, "What is it? What is it?"

"You are NOT going to believe this, " I said in my most dramatic voice (I have several), "I look absolutely terrific today. No, seriously, look at what a good hair and makeup day I am having." He just shook his head and walked off. But it was true. That morning I was a stunner.

We were walking to our car to go run errands and I said, "Bill, get a picture of me. I want to remember this moment when I'm old and bald because years of wearing extensions took its toll and now I don't have any hair left to clip it too. Capture this moment, because if ?I suddenly slip into a comma, this is how I need you to do my hair and makeup. Every day, Bill. EVERY. DAY. Remember, the eyebrows don't have to be twins, but they need to be sisters."

So he pulls out his phone and begrudgingly (is that the right word?) takes my picture. We're now riding down the road when I shriek, this time in horror, and my husband almost spins off the road, or he would have, except he's used to me shrieking in the front seat because I'm convinced every single car that comes up on our right is going to hit us. I'm working on it.

"Oh good grief, what is it?" he says in his most irritated voice (he's got several.) I held up his phone and pointed to the picture he had just taken. "OMG. Look at this picture you took. Why didn't you tell me how bad I looked? I look like a troll who got caught in a wind tunnel! How could you let me leave the house like this?" ?He didn't even respond. Just shrugged his shoulder and changed lanes.

I sat there in a state of complete confusion wondering how in the world the face I saw in the mirror that morning, was the same person I saw in this camera?

"Maybe it's the lens," my husband said.?

OMG. He was right. His phone is older. The lens is crappy.?

"Pull over," I said. "I need you to take another one." He thought I was kidding. I wasn't.

So there we are on the side of the road, me posing up against the car. Chin up. Stomach in. Click. This time on MY cell phone which was actually made in this century.

We get back in the car and I open up my phone. "OMG!" I yelled. He hates it when I talk in text.?

"What now?" he said.?

"Look," I held up my phone so he could see. I didn't care that he was driving, this was an emergency. ?This time I didn't look like a troll. I looked like a stroke victim wearing a crooked wig. My lipstick did not look like "plumb passion," it looked like "just took a right hook to the mouth." ?I had aged forty years since the last photo.?

"Yep, it's the lens, " my husband said like he had just discovered a new planet.?

"So which one am I?" I asked.?

"Guess whichever one you want it to be," he said.?

And then I had a profound earth-shattering epiphany. I can't help it, I'm a motivational speaker. I was the same each time, it was the lens that was different. Each time I was run through some sort of filter that changed what I saw.

Just like life. Life shows up for us and each one of us runs it through our own lens and comes away with our own story.?

So if I don't see myself the same way in each of these photos, how is the rest of the world seeing me? If they all have a different lens, then is each person seeing me as a result of their own filter??

OMG, my grandmother was right. Beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder. Which tells me two things. One, people are going to write a story of what they see in me, based on the way their lens is set up. Nothing I can do about it. And, two, I'm going to write a story about myself based on the way the lens is set up, and there is EVERYTHING I can do about that.

My husband was right (don't tell him) - it's whichever lens you want it to be.

So maybe next time you see your reflection and absolutely hate it, take a breath and consider that maybe, just maybe, you need a different lens.?Oh, and for gosh sakes, when someone takes your picture, make sure their camera is the latest version.

Are you brave enough to change your lens?