One Face 4

Candelaria Silva - One Face

As I look in the mirror this morning, it strikes me that I’ve been gifted with one face.  It’s an interesting face.  Recently, my one face has started to look a lot like my mother’s face.  That is as it should be.  My one face has been called:

Beautiful

    Handsome

    Pretty

    Aw-ight

My one face has been:

    Sad
Angry
Closed
Amazed

Once, a young man looked at me across from him on the train and exclaimed to his friends,  “That’s a dude, man.  That’s a dude.”  This surprised me and then it made me nervous.  Were they going to challenge me, whip my ass because they thought I was a cross-dressing man?  (I mean I know I have big feet and hands and a slight mustache that in those days I didn’t wax, but a man?  This body that had birthed two children?)

My one face has felt:

Lovely
Lonely
Sexy
Smart
Out-of-it
Plain
Wise
Old
Naive
Jaded
Exquisite joy

My one face has seen some things that were amazingly beautiful and amazingly terrible.  There were times when this face wished it were another face that seemed to have more going for it.  (I don’t hardly ever feel this way any more.) Sometimes this face has been the right face at the right time and other times it’s been passed over with barely a glance.

I am pretty happy with this face.  I think I’ll keep it!

Happy Birthday, to me.  And many more.

 


About Candelaria Silva

Candelaria Silva-Collins is a marketing, community outreach and programming consultant; writer; and trainer/facilitator who lives in Boston, Massachusetts. She has designed and facilitated workshops on a wide variety of topics including communication, facilitation, job search skills, team building, and parenting issues. She currently coordinates the Community Membership Program of the Huntington Theatre Company. Her work as Director of ACT Roxbury was profiled in several publications, including The Creative Communities Builders Handbook. Candelaria’s children’s stories, short stories, essays and reviews have been published in local and national publications and she is an active blogger. Her publications include the booklets, Handling Rejection; Pushing through Shyness: Networking Tips when You’re Shy, Slow to Warm Up or Just don’t Feel you Belong; and Real Questions about Sex & Relationships for Teens: A Discussion Guide for Parents. She has served on the boards of Goddard College, Wheelock Family Theatre, Boston Foundation for Architecture, and Discover Roxbury. She is currently Chair, Designators of the Henderson Foundation.

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4 thoughts on “One Face

  • My dreams

    Wow on the day of errands in the rain… that’s truly fantastic that you got all of that accomplished, and so few lines, as well!

    Happy Birthday to you, and your face! Our faces are so many things, to so many different people. I’m glad that you’re happy with yours! :D\

    (NCLM)

  • shytoo

    You ARE beautiful, and a beautiful person in every way! You readily help us see and feel with just a few carefully chosen words. Happy Birthday, Candelaria! You are a champion to all of us struggling in some way. You are strong and brave and yet very sensitive, too. I wish you a very wonderful year with many, many blessings! Thank you for all your wisdom and lessons shared.