Charmed

Today, I'm a proud woman. My Year 5s put on a play that we've been rehearsing for weeks. Set in a pet shop, revolving around a missing budgie, it was no Shakespeare, but they had put so much effort into it - learning their lines and collecting props. And today was the performance (staring me as a deaf Granddad... I'd forgotten to learn my lines so my hands looked like this with the words written on my palms - I couldn't let them down when they'd worked so hard!) and they were wonderful. Sure, it wasn't perfect. But it was lovely, and heartfelt.

But to the main topic of my post. Charm. Put simply, there's kind of a man in my life. Not in a sexual way, but a lovely, friendly way. I can spend hours with him and not get bored. He's got a good mixture of attributes: he's intelligent and witty, interesting and interested, funny but deep, confident (perhaps to excess) and content. He takes me seriously but we have a laugh, and he makes me feel totally appreciated but not at all taken for granted. Oh, and he charms me like I've never been charmed before. To be told that my hair looks good down, that my eyebrows look perfect today, that I have beautiful hands and nails, to have the clearness of my skin commented on... it makes me melt each time, and each time it takes me by surprise. No doubt it springs from past lack of self esteem, but I feel that, although there is nothing wrong with my body and I'm not ugly, my body itself is not one of my major attributes. There are plenty of things about met that might attract someone, but I would never consider my body as one of them. My body just *is*. And I never expected to react to charm in such a way. It feels... shallow, somehow. But good!! And so, while it lasts, I shall enjoy it. If ever my ego is feeling in need of an elastoplast, I now know to look for a good dose of flattery.

On a separate note, you will find that one thing that I love are clouds. Here are today's clouds - early evening as I was walking home in a fluttery post-flattery frame of mind.