The Circle of Strife

I got my eyebrows done a couple of weeks ago. The "eyebrow lady" pretty much suggested a whole face wax (because apparently my entire face is fuzzy). Then, ironically, she lectured me about the lack of eyebrow hair on the edges directly above my nose. 

She said I've been plucking what shouldn't be plucked. I tried to tell her that it was my last "eyebrow lady" who thinned out, and well I guess, shortened, my eyebrows. Some parts that she tweezed didn't grow back. I went to her several times before deciding to preserve what was left of my sad and sparse (from aged and over-waxed/tweezed) eyebrows. 

My new and disapproving brow stylist suggested I buy a cream that encourages hair to grow back. I nodded in pretend agreement. Then she showed me how to draw in eyebrow falsies. 

I've been thinking about the absurdity of it all. 

I spent the first half of my life begrudging those full arches above my eyes. "They're too fuzzy". In middle school I despised them, but was too young to do anything about them. I looked in the mirror and imagined my brows more substantial than they were. Thank goodness for Brooke Shields. She was a saving grace during those years. She was alluring with her untamed beauties. 

With high school came tweezing time. I painstakingly plucked. Most difficult were those hairs that had left the neat boundary I imagined; the ones planted lower on eyelid skin which is one hundred times more delicate than the skin where your eyebrows are supposed to grow. Removal of these typically caused teary eye corners. 

And then there was going out into the sunlight. No matter how effort-ful and time-consuming my eyebrow shaping, I would get into the car and catch a glimpse of myself in the pull-down mirror on the visor. I'd always missed a few. 

And now I have thinning eyebrows.  Thinning eyelashes too. 

Less fullness in my hair. What once required taming now needs teasing.  

 Less time, but more to do...

More cushion around my waist. 

More bills.  More pills to take. 

It's a circle of strife for some of us.   We can tend to be a dissatisfied people. We hastened the day that we'd outgrow acne, only to wake up with age lines now in place. As children we looked to the day we'd have the freedom to make our own decisions only to be overwhelmed by the number of decisions that have ended up on our shoulders. 

 We were convinced the future would be brighter until we woke up missing days passed. 

  

So concerned are we with yesterdays and tomorrows, tweezers and eyebrow filler, that we need a simple creed to fall back on when contentment seems to be a moving target. 

Eyebrow/Life Creed

I will allow myself to thin my eyebrows when they're too fuzzy and thin my schedule when it's overpacked. Likewise I will use eyebrow filler or "grow back" cream (if it suits my fancy) when my eyebrows become sparse. I will not, however, continue to view my eyebrows, my waistline or my "things to do" list as more important than they are. 

Whether filling or diminishing, shaping or accentuating, I will keep an awareness of those efforts which are frivolous in nature. 

I will appreciate yesterday and tuck it in a special place to be taken back out and smiled upon now and then,  but I refuse to assign it greater value than the time that is now before me. 

 I will dream dreams of tomorrow and look toward those days with hopefulness, but I will not favor the days to come over today. 

I will fill my day with more of Jesus and expect to experience more beauty than the mirror or my efforts could ever provide. 

Psalm 34:5 

Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed.