You have a beautiful nose

Many, many moons ago I worked in a dermatology office.

A very busy dermatology office. While we saw patients of all ages (infant to elder) with all kinds of skin conditions (pimple to melanoma), the majority of our patients were older, and were being seen for skin cancer.

I learned a lot from my days in that office. I learned a lot from our patients. And next to the great co-workers that I had there, I miss the patients the most.

One day, an older woman was leaving the office. Just before she walked thru the door, she turned back to me and said "You have a beautiful nose"

She then went on to say that I probably didn't think so, as it's rather large (it is), but it is quite beautiful, and there might come a day when I didn't have my nose anymore, and then I'd realize how beautiful it really was.

And then she told me her story. She had been overweight her entire life, and always hated her stomach. But recently cancer (I'm unsure what kind) had left her with significant weight loss, and a stomach of loose, wrinkled skin. She lifted her shirt to show me.

Now she laments all the time she spent wishing her large stomach would go away, she wished she would have appreciated her belly for as beautiful as it was when she had it, because she hated the way she looked now.

That was over 10 years ago, but I still see her face, still hear her words. Her story has never left me, nor has the lesson (although sometimes I need reminding).

And so, dear blog readers, I tell each of you:

You have a most beautiful nose!

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the story is all mine, but the idea to write it down & be appreciative was inspired by this post