Locomotoring

I am not in the habit of looking at my face. I am not sure why but it is probably not one reason. As a girl child, I thought it vain. As a young adult, my gender made me self-conscious. As a busy career professional, the reflection staring back offered nothing to engage my curiosity. I have noticed some rapid changes in the last few years. The face that looks back is starting to look different from what I had imagined it to be. I find that I am avoiding eye contact with my reflection even more, I turn my back when brushing my teeth or hair.

Perhaps it is time to take on the exercise of carefully looking at my face, so I can reacquaint myself. An extensive power outage in the area gives me the necessary pause to get started on this exercise. In art appreciation, there is a practice to stare at a museum piece until you exhaust all possibilities. I decided to start with that approach, but instead of a single long shift, I decided to do the observation in phases, each lasting 20-40 minutes, each time focusing on one or two aspects.