Its weird, the things that represent strength.
In the past week I've watched my best friend face fear and become stronger than I think she realizes. She can rock a shaved head and I am in awe of her. I guess that's what got me thinking about this post's topic. I associate shaved heads with fear and ultimately strength.
My little sister had a life threatening accident when she was three. To this day I can vividly remember fragmented pieces of it. She went from a little smiley kid with pigtails to little smiley kid with a helmet. She had this huge horseshoe scar on the side of her shaved head where the Doctors repaired her fractured skull.
Her skull.
But oddly enough, the shaved head, scar and helmet only accentuated her little kid smile (just like it is doing for Crescent) the proverbial twinkle in Erin's eye was for real. Even though she was three and couldn't verbalize it, I believe she knew just how close she came to a different outcome and she was celebrating. (Okay, so she celebrated in the weirdest of little kid ways, like pretending the dining table leg was her pony, but it made her happy.....and they said there was no damage to the brain.......hmmm....)
As her older sister, I think about that day a lot. Somewhere deep down in the memory banks lies this image of her actually getting hit (by a softball bat....and NO I was not swinging it). Thankfully, I have made a deal with the memory librarian and she archived it so I can't consciously recall it.
**Side note: Librarians love caramels. If you ever need to bribe one, make sure to be prepared.**
I am so damn thankful I AM an older sister; I can't imagine having lost her. Ever since we were teenagers we've talked about the "one day" dream -- that one day we'll be neighbors with a gate made in the fence between our houses and her kids will run away to Aunt Sissy Pant's house where they'll eat fluffer nutter sandwiches in pajamas while we make forts with the couch cushions. And in the middle of the night Erin and I will carry them quietly back to their own beds so when they wake up they're back where they belong. I'll let you in on a secret, I don't care if she has kids or not, there would be a gate in the fence so I could run away to my sister's house and hideout in the fort we'd make in her living room.
When I look at her now, I don't see that little awkward scared kid in a helmet with a horseshoe scar, I see a beautiful strong sister with a lucky horseshoe mark she'll carry with her forever.
When you see a shaved head, you are looking at a strong woman. You may not see them at first because their hair has grown back, but look closely and I bet you'll see the twinkle in their eye and the strength in their heart.
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