Lost in reverie, the afternoon sunlight dappled my path, when I noticed a pond in the distance and To my surprise, I also noticed a small deer nearby. The animal was gazing at the clear surface of the pond.
I approached, making enough noise to alert the deer to my presence without starting her. Sidling close to the edge of the pond, he looked into the water to see what the deer was doing.
“What do you see?” she asked me.
“Nothing,” I replied. “What am I looking for?”
“Look at your reflection and tell me what you see.”
“I just see me looking a bit tired.” I glanced up at the deer. “What do you see?”
A smile emanated from her soft muzzle. “I like what I see!” she said. “I really like what I see.”
“That’s easy for you to say,” I remarked, nodding my head. “You are very beautiful.”
The deer cocked her head, her large lashes fluttering softly at the compliment. “Well, I have not always thought this. For a long time I did not think this way. I really disliked what I saw. Compared with the other deer I did not think that I looked good at all.”
I almost felt my mouth drop open, but I kept quiet, encouraging her to continue her story.
“The others were all so beautiful,” she explained. “Then one day “Then one day when I was looking at my reflection, I realised that the image I was looking at was just on the surface. What I felt was actually inside. I decided to look inside, deep inside. So I looked into my eyes, the ‘windows of the soul’ as I’d heard them called. To my surprise I felt a connection and a warm inner glow for the first time in a long time. So I kept returning to the pond again and again looking deep within, into my eyes. It changed my life!
I began to realise that we are all wonderful and beautiful on the inside. It’s just that we have forgotten. At the root of our problems is not feeling good enough because we compare ourselves to others and to how we think we should be.
This really resonated with me, so I shifted my gaze from the deer’s gentle face into the still water. I looked into my eyes, deep within and also deep into the pond. This felt completely different from my previous look. I was curious to find what I would discover.
The deer gently advised, “It really helps if you set your intention to really like yourself!
I felt a little bit self-conscious at first, but soon felt more comfortable and then the beginnings of a connection inside, albeit fleetingly!
Chapter 10 – Bec’s Insights – click