What My Face Looks Like Sometimes

 I thought I'd try a "Selfie", a word I heard on The Voice last season.  The winner apparently liked to use her phone and take pictures of her self!  I thought it was cute.  Normally, I hate getting my picture taken.  I avoid a camera like the flu.  I have worked at a university for 30 years and probably have my picture in about 5 of  the yearbooks.  The year before last my sister-in-law said, you know, we don't have many pictures of you!  Well, it was by design.  I've had my share of bad photos.  I'm not photogenic.  I read once that Abe Lincoln commented on a photo of himself:  "There are no bad pictures; that's just how your face looks sometimes."  Really??  Well, he was honest Abe.  Owe it.  Sometimes my face does look like this picture.  Right now, as a matter of fact, since I just took this picture.  My thoughts?  What was I thinking when I picked those frames?  Do I really have that many freckles?  Or are those……no, it can not be, ….AGE SPOTS!?!?!   I can't wait until I have to get another driver's license, because my last photo at the DMV proved I should shun cameras as much as possible!

 But, photos help me remember, and photos remind me of a time never to be again.   And sometimes never to be again is a very good thing.   I'm so thankful I don't have that perm that made my head look like a triangle, or wear mini shirts like everyone else in high school that showed my knobby knees.  And yet, I enjoy seeing my family and friends from years ago.  I still (sometimes) think of my nieces as the two little girls in the photograph with the blue and white matching sailor dresses.  I had that picture on my desk at work for years.  They now have children of their own.  I have a picture of my one-year old nephew with his arms open wide and the biggest smile with a little drool about to roll down his chin. He is now a freshman in college.  I have pictures from my trips to Europe, Hawaii, and Mexico.  Places I'll never forget, but places I'm sure have changed as I have changed.  Everything changes - that's the one sure thing in life, change.  Except photos.  Photos don't change.    And this picture of myself?  It captures a face that looks like me sometimes.  This picture will not change over the years, but I will.  I pray my next picture will be a photo of a women closer to God, wiser, and has great glasses.