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I was 15 months old, a happy carefree kid, until the day I fell. It was a bad fall. I landed on a piece of glass that cut my eye badly. My mom found a doctor who knew that if the eye was removed, my face would look ugly. From then on, my injured, sightless, cloudy gray eye lived on with me.
Sometimes people asked me embarrassing (使人难堪的) questions. When kids played games, I was always the "monster". I grew up imagining that everyone looked down on (瞧不起) me.
Yet Mom would say to me, "Hold your head up high and face the world. " I began to depend on that saying.
As a child, I thought mom meant, "Be careful or you will fall down or bump into something because you are not looking. " As a teenager, I usually looked down to hide my shame. But I found that when I held my head up high, people liked me.
In high school I even became the class president, but on the inside I still felt like a monster. All I really wanted was to look like everyone else. When things got really bad, I would cry to my mom and she would look at me with loving eyes and say, "Hold your head up high and face the world. Let them see the beauty that is inside. "
When I met the man who became my husband, we looked each other straight in the eye, and he told me I was beautiful inside and out.
My mom's love was the sunshine that made me bright that gave me confidence. I had faced hardships, and learned not only to appreciate myself but also to have deep compassion (怜悯) for others.
"Hold your head up high" has been heard many times in my home. Each of my children has felt its invitation. I say it to my children. The gift my mom gave me will live on.
