Like they see you...

My wish for the people I love is to see yourself like others see you.  In your moments of self doubt, exhaustion, and second guessing-- stop-- and see yourself like they see you.

Little Ella reminded me of this the other day.  We were at the beach and it had been a good, yet teary day.  The girls were exhausted after nearly a week of fun at the beach and Ava Jane had skipped her nap and my mother-in-law, Julie, had valiantly offered to rock her to sleep during her meltdown.  Nerves frayed and visibly frazzled, I snuck out on screen porch from the master bedroom where Ella was playing with her My Little Ponies.  When she heard the door turning she stopped what she was doing and looked up and smiled an enormous smile when she saw me and this conversation transpired:

Ella: "Hi Mommy, I heard someone coming out here and I was hoping it was you and it is."
Me: "Ah, thanks Ella, I'm happy to see you too.  What are you doing, sweetie?"
Ella: "Playing ponies"
Me: "That's really cool. Glad you're having fun."
Ella: "Thanks, Mommy.  {then she paused and stood up and walked over to me and gave me a huge hug and looked my square in the eyes and said} Mommy, I love you.  I love you so much.  You really are the best."

And it kinda knocked the breath out of me.  I thought, wow, is this really how she sees me?  Me who falls short, loses patience, and has days where my "A" game seems miles away?  Yes-- me.  Ella loves me unconditionally...for the times she knows I try my hardest, for the times she senses that I go the extra mile for our family, for the nights I hold her when she's had a bad dream, for the fun we have together-- and most importantly in spite of my imperfections which are at times glaringly obvious to me, yet seem to go magically unnoticed by her.  What a truly amazing blessing.

  Isn't this often the case?  Aren't we always harder on ourselves than anyone else will ever be? What if we saw ourselves for the amazing qualities others see in us?  Wouldn't we all be happier people? And so the challenge becomes to be the best we can be and to try our very hardest-- but in case, in our eyes, we fall short-- have the courage to be a little less harsh and see ourselves like the ones we love see us.  Yet another profound lesson from Ella Grace-- our little sparkler that we love to the moon and back times infinity.