We see our better selves in the eyes of those who love us

How well do we really know ourselves? Sometimes, no matter how skinny, good looking, rich, smart, and strong we are, we still have that moment when our insecurities start creeping in our veins. Once that happens, we sit down and sulk, and then we seem to be fatter, a bit dull and boring, unsatisfied with the things that we have, inferior, and weak than we truly are. We are only as good as we imagine and think ourselves to be, and sometimes, we can only see how nice and great we are in the eyes of the ones we love.

While reading Cassandra Clare’s Clockwork Prince, I stumbled on this excerpt: “While he lived and they were friends, Yu Boya wrote some of the greatest music that we know. Would he have been able to do that alone? Our hearts, they need a mirror, Tessa. We see our better selves in the eyes of those who love us. And there is a beauty that brevity alone provides.” This is James Carstairs words to Tessa Gray, and this is one of my favorite lines that I came across in a book. In times when we are just by ourselves, with no friends and fun around, we tend to belittle ourselves and underestimate what we truly can do, and we forget how beautiful and capable we are when we start our reveries.

We are not as bad as we think we are. In our parents’ eyes, we will always be beautiful and will always be a source of their joy. In our siblings’ eyes, we might be the most annoying creature that exists, but to them, we will always be the best friend they asked God for. In our other half’s eyes, we will always be the loveliest person that brings them with so much happiness, and we will always be the reason why they choose to be good. In the eyes of the ones we love, we will always be enough. In the eyes of the ones we love, we will always be the best person that we can be. For the ones that we love, we will always want to be our better selves. For the ones we love, we become the person we never thought we can be – a person full of love, greatness, compassion, and wisdom.

We always have a choice to be the best version of ourselves – and most of the time, we achieve that through the help of the people we love, people who encourage and love us unconditionally. J

"We see our better selves in the eyes of those who love us." - James Carstairs

Sometimes, we are not as bad as we think we are, or how others see and think of us. Sometimes, people who love us are the ones who know us most - the ones who see the goodness in us. -- KMP