Don't purse your lips

​When I was a little girl and made a face or had a "sour" expression my Mother would say to me..."be careful.  Your face may just freeze that way!"

Of course I didn't believe her!  Now I do!

Sometimes when I look into the mirror I see that parts of my face have "frozen".  Especially my lips!

I told John boy the other day that I think my lips are disappearing!  He said "well, Mom, that does happen when you get older!"

WHAT?  

As I looked this morning and tried to put lip balm on them (forget lipstick...there isn't enough lip for that!) I noticed that they seem locked into a perpetual "purse".

I looked up purse in the dictionary.  Besides being something you carry, it also means "to pucker or contract, typically to express disapproval or irritation."

I remembered all the times I had looked at my boys growing up with disapproval, or irritation....especially in church, of all places!  Ask them how many times I reached over and pinched them for misbehaving in church!  I also "pursed" my lips while doing so.

Now, 50 plus years later, my face has "frozen".  My Mother was right!

Now I have decided to work on unpursing my face!  I am going to practice smiling more..looking with approval rather than disapproval or irritation.  I am going to try and work on looking for the good in people rather than the things I don't like about them.  I am going to try and make my eyes send forth rays of joy rather than storm clouds!  

It matters what your face looks like!  I don't mean all of us are beautiful...at least on the outside...but all of us can be full of beauty!  I used to avoid grouchy old people when I was a child.  I want to draw children in!  I need to unfreeze my face!  Or at least freeze it into something beautiful!

I also want my lips back!

via GIPHY