Christmas Present
Dec. 24th, 2020
Dear Friends,
At this Christmas eve afternoon, it finally starts snowing. My beloved baby Ollie is cuddling under my arm while I am sitting on the couch writing down my thoughts. Indeed, very cozy and sweet.
It’s the annual present season. I wonder what the best present I can give to myself and friends.
Anyone who has met me noticed right away how proudly I appreciate who I am; spiritually, intellectually, emotionally and physically. People may have different opinions about me, I am totally fine with it. But I am NOT apologizing for my self-appreciation. To me, it is the ONLY present I want and can give to myself.
More than two decades ago, I was working for a Chinese start up airline, in the process of purchasing the first three Airbus A320 aircraft (That was also Airbus first attempt to penetrate into Chinese market). I was the only one who could speak some English, so I was heavily involved in all the activities from negotiations to enter into service preparation. Airbus had huge presence on site as you can imagine. I have met so many polished Airbus delegates, including sales V.P., international sales team, lawyers … just to name a few.
Over the years, the person I admire and remember the most is the wife of an engineer, who was part of the Airbus supporting team. We met once during a regular dinner gathering. It was summer time in South China, she wore a lower neckline, sleeveless summer dress, exposed boldly her severely burned scars from jaw down, by some miracle, her face was spared entirely.
That was my first time to see someone with so much scars up close, so I paid special attention to her naturally. Within minutes, I was so taken by her. She was confident, witting, fanny, not overly talkative, very elegant and charming. She showed me the power of self-appreciation and the inner strength to overcome life challenges.
One year after I met her, I had a face down crush on a downhill snowy bridge on my bicycle. I ended up having a penny-size scar on my left cheek right under my eye, plus two smaller ones above my left eye. Few days later, it was clear to me that they were here to stay, so I accepted my new face. The magic was when I settled with the reality, they became less noticeable to me, and before I knew, I had completely ignored them.
I travelled to visit many customers as nothing wrong on my face, no one said anything to me neither. Over time, the scars faded and eventually disappeared entirely. I don't know how long it took because they never bothered me. Years later, a good friend asked me what I did to my scars. She had to remind me because I had totally forgotten. (The reason she asked was her daughter had an accident, got burned on her chest, she wanted to know how to heal her daughter). I told her that was purely time’s own doing.
In 2003, shortly after I moved to US, I had a car accident, my car flipped on a steep downhill, my left arm and palm were scratched on the ground badly. Two weeks later, I knew the scars were permanent, so I accepted them and moved on.
While I was teaching in FL, kids sometime asked me about the scars since I wore summer dresses all year long, I just told them what occurred like a story I happened to know. Otherwise, I didn’t notice them at all.
The past two weeks, I have been learning and building my web, I was puzzled by one of my photos because my left arm was not smooth. After looking at it many times while revising my web, I finally realized that was caused by the scars. Gush, I have forgotten them completely.
In life, we all carry our own scars, imperfections. While we are continuing to be a better version of ourselves, please do remember to love and appreciate who we are, FEEL beautiful from the bottom of our hearts.
THAT is the ultimate present we can give to ourselves for life.
Merry Christmas!
Warm Hugs
Zhen
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