Their eyes followed her like lemmings every time she walked into a room. Each stride of her long legs were more mesmerizing than any pocket watch could hope to be. She carried herself in a regal way. But what really set her apart was the fact that she was only peripherally aware of her beauty. It never really held any importance because from the moment it started to blossom her mother always reminded her not to depend on it for it would eventually fade.
Follow your heart and follow your brain my sweet, those are your greatest assets. This was advice Lily took seriously as she volunteered in animal shelters and read to sick kids in the hospital. She buried herself in the study of languages and obscure history and she felt good about her inner self. Her heart was kind and her mind was sharp.
She knew that someday that the bloom would be off the rose so she tried to ignore her looks and downplayed them when she could. She had few friends and some boys who were "friends." She never really saw the longing in their eyes, she was too busy accomplishing and being who she was meant to be. She was beautifying her brain. She was too young to understand that one should never squander gifts bestowed, no matter how fleeting. Foolishly she believed her life was full and there was nothing more that she could want. She had been blessed with a fine heart and a brain, and she could out wait her beauty until it disappeared. It was after all, just a matter of time.
Oh her teeth were white and her hair was long and glossy like raven's feathers. but it was her eyes that were her crowning glory. Crystal blue and almond shaped surrounded by dark lashes that absorbed everything around her except the fact that she was lonely. As she became more important in her field of obscure facts and even more obscure languages the most obvious fact eluded her and followed her everywhere she went. People still admired her but from afar, she seemed aloof, and to the more jealous, snobby. Most do not ignore what they can see but Lily was an expert.
And then one day, a man of letters and wit refused to break the lock he'd placed between their eyes. At first she found him a nuisance, he interrupted her work and wanted to do frivolous things like laugh and maybe even skip a lecture or two. But he was persistent that man of tweed jackets during the week and leather ones on the weekends. Later through much cajoling and convincing she began to see herself through his eyes. She realized the time she had wasted ignoring a gift such as hers. One that did not need to be flaunted but could have been welcomed and enjoyed, even savored privately in front of a gilded mirror given to her by her lover. She now knew it never had to define her and it was nothing to be ashamed of.Instead, because of her ignorance, she had been culled from the crowd and isolated her in ways she did not understand.
Time passed and she aged in a natural progression, still attractive, and if she looked very hard she could see the girl she ignored for so long and now she smiles because at least for a brief time she got to know her and like her. She had always been as beautiful inside as she once was on the outside; that lesson was a long time coming. The girl was now faded, the man of letters and wit still loved her and finally she understood that no gift should be rejected because it won't last forever. You can't run from the yourself or your gifts.Embrace them all and what you do with them is really what matters in the end.
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