I have always loved this picture. Not because I was on a magazine cover (okay, maybe a little) but mostly because of the untold story. You see…
It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon and I was enjoying my time in the yard using a gas hedge trimmer on our shrubs. Unfortunately, I stepped on a colony of yellow jackets that were nesting under some mulch. I threw down the trimmer and ran to get help. Once we were able to recover the still running trimmer, I turned it off restarted it just to make sure nothing had broken. Somehow, I let go of the pull chord and it painfully clipped my chin. By evening, I had a nice purplish bruise across the lower left side of my face and my right leg felt like it was on fire from multiple bee stings (Oh, did I mention I used to be allergic to bees as a child).
That night, as I tried to will myself to sleep, the itching and discomfort got worse. Although I’m not a medicine taker, I eventually got up to take “1” Advil. By morning, I had lost track of the number of Advil’s I’d taken but I’m pretty sure it was more than the minutes of sleep I’d had. When I rolled out of bed, my leg was hot and swollen. I came up with what I thought was an ingenious idea and decided to swim some laps in the cool pool water. When I went back inside to get ready for work, I was horrified to discover my left eye was now the color of a raw side of beef. It was bad. Apparently, I had burst a blood vessel (per the optometrist) from too much Advil combined with wearing tight goggles. As I got ready for work, I couldn’t contain the tears. Why was this happening, and on my big photo shoot day?
I went to work, one shoe on and the other stuffed in my purse. I told the photographer I was “out” but he convinced me otherwise. So, when you first saw this picture, hopefully you didn’t notice anything unusual. But now maybe you will notice how my hair is draped over my left eyeball. Although Photoshop helped tremendously, I can still see the darker spot on my left chin. My back foot is positioned where only my toes were actually in the shoe. Aren’t photographers amazing!
Although I can laugh at this now, it was more than stressful at the time. Somehow though, it all worked out. We all have times in our lives when we look put together to the outside world, but there is so much more going on then others may ever see or know (some cosmetic like mine but some really painful stuff too). Maybe that’s where all these great phrases came from – don’t judge a book by it’s cover, there’s more than meets the eye, a picture is worth a thousand words, etc. If you are struggling and would like some nonjudgmental, caring support to get you to a place where you feel picture worthy (inside or outside), I’m here for you (850-291-7124 or coach@mariavigodsky.com). Together we will tackle your challenges and build your resiliency so you can enjoy life – regardless of the unexpected stings you encounter along the way.