Mirror, Mirror, What the Heck?

One-a-Day Photo Challenge

Day Thirty-One:  You, Again

Well, I'm ending this month-long photo challenge the same way I began it, taking my own picture in the bathroom mirror. This time I am still in my bathrobe, and I did take the time to put on makeup. For the sake of variety, I  also moved to the other end of the vanity and took off my eyeglasses.

Actually, I left the glasses off out of curiosity more than anything. I wear them all the time and depend on them so much that I no longer knew what I look like without them. Seeing myself in the mirror when I'm not wearing corrective lenses is a fuzzy, soft-focus experience, like watching Doris Day movies or Diane Sawyer on the evening news: I can't see the things I'd rather not see anyway. The magnifying mirror I use to put on eye makeup is too small to view more than one eye at a time, and the eye in that mirror is always being stretched taut to keep mascara from clumping in a crevice.

That's why I was so surprised to inspect this uploaded shot and see so many deep, crepey laugh lines. I mean, I knew I had some--everybody my age does--but I hadn't realized it's just a matter of time until I'll be able to hide  small objects in those folds.

I looked at the rest of the photos. My eyes appeared much less wrinkly when I wasn't smiling or when I was wearing my glasses. Since I have no desire or intention to give up laughing, my plan for the future is to buy each successive pair of new eyeglasses with thicker frames than the previous pair. Maybe that'll work.

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This is the last day of the One-a-Day Photo Challenge. I'd like to thank Alison again for encouraging me to join her in it. It's been both a good experience and a good lesson. In much the same way as I've been seeing the face but not the wrinkles, I've been seeing the metaphorical forest in my immediate surroundings and ignoring the trees. Not to mention the limbs and the leaves and the bark and the birds and the squirrels. This challenge motivated me to pay closer attention, to observe and appreciate the details. To zoom in and focus, with or without the camera. I hope that will become a habit.