I am forever thankful for people like Giselle Villasenor of Giselle Villasenor Photography.  She has a gift of capturing special fleeting moments in our art of jiu jitsu.  We recently attended a guard workshop/seminar held by 4 incredible female black belts.  A thank you and many hugs to Professor Benjamin Salas of Seamless Progression for his thoughtfulness when he decided to host this seminar.  Giselle captured many moments, but for the first time I felt so overwhelmed with happiness at a specific picture she took of me.  My apologies if this sounds vain, because it isn't meant to be.  Its not the pure joy she captured in my face.  The joy of this art I've grown to love from every angle and unconditionally.  

No, you see, she captured my mother.  I see our similar smiles. Our similar profiles.  And, my favorite, our eyes.  I see the years of life in our eyes.  Now, I'm only 33.  I still consider myself young (I say this all the time, but with grandparents who lived from late eighties to early 100's, I am so young), but I'm seeing lines around my eyes that weren't there before.  I see the creases my dimples have etched into my cheeks from countless happy moments.  And I see the furrows in my forehead from time to time, put there by the stress that life hands out.

The women in my family are beautiful, but not timeless.  Our life experiences are portrayed on the canvas of our pale skins.  But no one is more beautiful than my mother, and I hope I age as she does, with all the colors of my life for the world to see.