Beautiful.

There is a little girl at my school.

Her hair is ratty and the curls that reign her head are held tightly against her scalp. (In SOME places.) Her hair actually seems to be various lengths, as if she herself decided that parts of it needed a trim and others do not.
Sometimes her riot of curls holds a little nugget of a braid. One that you can barely see until she points it out with pride.
"See my braid?" She beams at whomever stands closest to her.
The teachers ooh and ahhh and nod and smile.

TODAY her hair was adorned with 7 hair clips. Haphazardly placed amongst the stray braid and the rest of the curls.

........There was a reason for their placement.I stared at them for 5 full minutes before shaking my head and walking in the opposite direction.

She is slim and the clothing that she wears is either too small or much too big. The patterns that she wears never match but there is something much better that she wears.

Confidence.

On Tuesday she waltzed up to me, proudly pointing at the sliver glitter bow that was held into her hair by a headband.  " See my bow Ms.Beanie?"
"I do! I do indeed see your bow."

I didn't know how anyone could miss it! It was a giant sparkly monster of a thing, one she probably dug out of her mothers closet from a box marked 'My 80's high school gear.'

"AND!....." She exclaimed as she pointed down to her feet.

"Annnnnnnnd......Silver sparkle shoes. Nice!" I exclaimed "Way to bring it all together!"

In between the silver bow and matching shoes there were pink striped pants and a black and white polkadot dress.

She proudly nodded and took my hand. "aren't I so beautiful?" she beamed up at me.

"You indeed are beautiful." I agreed. And she ran off to dig in the sand some more. Adding the gritty browness to her silver sparkle shoes.

5 minutes later she ran back to me in tears "Ms.Beanie!" was all she could gasp out. She fell against me and heaved great sobs against my shirt.

"What is wrong!? Only 5 minutes ago you were smiling!"

"That girl. She said I was ugly Ms. Beanie! She said I was SO UGLY!" And she threw herself against me once more.

Her heart was not broken. It was BROKEN.

I held her for a second and scanned the yard to see which little girl was guiltily looking at me and giving herself away.

What I saw was a yard full of very well dressed children. In TuTu's and matching outfits and knit sweaters. They have nice haircuts and new shoes and it was all covered by the same gritty sand that covered this child's old sparkle shoes.

I pulled her from my body and looked into her light blue eyes.
No. This was not a beautiful child.
She does not have a perfect bow mouth nor does she have a healthy round child body. Her skinny frame was held by my unskinny one and I smiled into her eyes.

"Do you know WHY you are so beautiful?" I asked her

"Why?" She blinked away tears and leaned closer to me

"Your shoes sparkle and that makes you happy. The bow in your hair makes you FEEL pretty. But what makes you beautiful...truly beautiful, is the fact that you Believe that you are."

"I do believe that I am! I KNOW I am."

I looked down at her and smiled "You remind me of someone." I said to her

"I do?!"

"Yes."

"Who?"

"Me."