caution: falling hazard

I'm standing in the bedroom, brushing my hair. My six-year-old son is standing behind me, looking at my reflection in the mirror.

"Mom," he thoughtfully asked, "What happens when you walk in to a room?"

Smiling at him I respond, "People yell out, 'Hey Mama! What's happening?!'"

He gives me a serious look and sternly says, "No, Mom, what really happens?"

Not sure where he was going with this line of questioning I responded, "Well, gosh, I don't know. They'll usually say 'Hi Jen, how are you?'"

His look shifts to a suspicious one as he says, "Are you sure that they don't fall down because you are so beautiful? Because Mom, EVERYONE should be falling down." He reaches up to touch my hair and then he summons me down so he can kiss my cheek and wrap his arms around my neck. When my face is next to his he whispers, "Mommy, you are so pretty..."

My heart is full as I stand up and look at myself again in the mirror. I've got on an exercise top and the pants that I wore yesterday. I'm 25 pounds heavier than I should be. There are bags under my eyes and a blob of mascara smeared across one lid. There are stringers of coarse gray hair sticking up all over my head. And yet, my son thinks people should be falling down when I enter a room.

He is so good for my morale.

Thank God love is blind.