Stick with me.. I’ll get to the strawberries. This morning I woke up. I showered, got dressed and headed to the airport. I love to fly. I love flying with people and recently this past year discovered how much I enjoy flying alone. When I used to fly solo I hated it because I thought, if the plane crashed, I’ll die alone. Now I’m a little older and what will happen, will happen. For now I try to take in every moment while I’m still alive.

Anywho, I walk up to check in and there was a beautiful woman. I could tell even under her mask. She took my ID and then I noticed her awesome nail polish, some were the perfect shade of teal and some were black. But, it was done different than I’ve seen before. For some reason I got super excited and shouted out, “I looove your nails!” (This is what I call a strawberry.) Then I noticed her earrings and those were great too. I kept that one to myself so I didn’t sound super creepy.

I’m all checked in. I stroll on over to pop in line to do pre flight checks. In front of me was a cute tiny little bubbly girl maybe between 25-30 that kept watching me and turning back around. We were about two feet apart, in a six foot apart world. Finally, she says, “I love your shoes!” (There it is, another strawberry!) We then chatted about our outfits and I told her that people stop me for these shoes all the time. These suckers came from Walmart! I wear them everywhere, even hiked through Alaska in them.

Now I’m on board and thinking about Strawberries! I had a conversation with my son a while back about being more cognizant of vocalizing when someone does something nice or kind, if they look nice, or if you notice something you like about them. I said try to pick one person daily, then authentically compliment them until you are naturally doing it as a habit without noticing! I said, be sweet, like a strawberry. So now I tell him, don’t forget your daily strawberry! It takes nothing to notice someone and give them a compliment. People spend a lot of time and thought on what others think and usually it’s not inwardly positive. Help others see their beauty and kindness.

I finally pick up today’s travel book of choice. And, wouldn’t you know page 2 says something pretty profound along the lines of the thoughts rolling around in my head about this topic. It said, “I could see, in the depths of his eyes, my own beauty reflected.” I re read about fifteen times, fifteen different ways. For me, this shows we are so critical of ourselves, for those we allow in, they see us to our true core. The good, the bad and the ugly and they still think we are beautiful. (Even if we chew funny or do things like clear our throat until they want to smother us.) Think about the way you look into the eyes of your loved ones and how you see magic in them where they can’t!