i'm going as bozo

I can’t wear lipstick. I try again and again. Different brands, different shades. With gloss, without gloss. It just doesn’t work on me. I don’t know if it is my skin tone, the natural pigment in my lips or the shape of my mouth. Whatever it is, when I put lipstick on I look like Bozo the Clown heading out for a night of street work.  I look in the mirror and all I see are lips and not in a good way. And I get so frustrated. I have this idea in my head that lipstick completes the look. Sophisticated, grown-up women wear lipstick and I’m still putting on my Burt’s Bees like a 12 year old.

But the other day, as I was looking at my pile of Bozo channeling lipsticks, I heard a different voice vying for attention. This voice said that there are probably women out there who wish that they didn’t have to wear lipstick. Applying it over and over because they feel exposed without it. This small voice was urging me to see the blessing instead of the curse. And for that moment I chose to listen to that voice instead of the other one as I closed my make-up drawer and went to find my chapstick.


photo by HeartlanderPD  http://www.flickr.com/photos/28596302@N04/2712560846/