Maybe the real reason we linger before the mirror is that it is the one place in the whole world
where we see ourselves through our eyes only. No feeling of comparison with someone else,
with someone we are not. No stranger’s jagged gaze. No camera’s eye which does not live
or breathe, or painter’s hand that fails to give caress. No other focus for miles and miles around.
A time to feel we are beautiful, to feel good about ourselves just the way we are. And in that
moment of self-acceptance to stand again on the threshold of all belonging, before the feel of
every refuge.
August 1989