一只眼睛失明后，我走路总是看地面，不敢抬起头，生怕被人嘲笑。有些时候人们会问我一些尴尬的问题，令我十分伤心，和小伙伴们做游戏时我也总扮演“妖怪”，我知道我是别人眼中的异类。
每当这种时候，妈妈总对我说：“高高昂起你的头来”。  这句话一度成为我的精神支柱。我慢慢敢抬起头来走路了，而且我发现周围有很多人其实很喜欢我。我逐渐克服了心理障碍。妈妈的爱和鼓励给了我信心和力量。
I  was  fifteen  months  old,  a  happy  carefree  kid  until  the  day  I  fell.  It  was  a  bad  fall.  I  landed  on  a  glass  rabbit  which  cut  my  eye  badly  enough  to  blind  it.  Trying  to  save  the  eye,  the  doctors  stitched  the  eyeball  together  where  it  was  cut,  leaving  a  big  ugly  scar  in  the  middle  of  my  eye.  The  attempt  failed,  but  my  mama,  in  all  of  her  wisdom,  found  a  doctor  who  knew  that  if  the  eye  were  removed  entirely,  my  face  would  grow  up  badly  distorted,  so  my  scarred,  sightless,  cloudy  and  gray  eye  lived  on  with  me.  And  as  I  grew,  this  sightless  eye  in  so  many  ways  controlled  me.
I  walked  with  my  face  looking  at  the  floor  so  people  would  not  see  the  ugly  me.  Sometimes  people,  even  strangers,  asked  me  embarrassing  questions  or  made  hurtful  remarks.  When  the  kids  played  games,  I  was  always  the  "monster."  I  grew  up  imagining  that  everyone  looked  at  me  with  disdain,  as  if  my  appearance  were  my  fault.  I  always  felt  like  I  was  a  freak.

Yet  Mama  would  say  to  me,  at  every  turn,  "Hold  your  head  up  high  and  face  the  world."  It  became  a  litany  that  I  relied  on.  She  had  started  when  I  was  young.  She  would  hold  me  in  her  arms  and  stroke  my  hair  and  say,  "If  you  hold  your  head  up  high,  it  will  be  okay,  and  people  will  see  your  beautiful  soul."  She  continued  this  message  whenever  I  wanted  to  hide.
Those  words  have  meant  different  things  to  me  over  the  years.  As  a  little  child,  I  thought  Mama  meant,  "Be  careful  or  you  will  fall  down  or  bump  into  something  because  you  are  not  looking."  As  an  adolescent,  even  though  I  tended  to  look  down  to  hide  my  shame,  I  found  that  sometimes  when  I  held  my  head  up  high  and  let  people  know  me,  they  liked  me.  My  mama's  words  helped  me  begin  to  realize  that  by  letting  people  look  at  my  face,  I  let  them  recognize  the  intelligence  and  beauty  behind  both  eyes  even  if  they  couldn't  see  it  on  the  surface.
In  high  school  I  was  successful  both  academically  and  socially.  I  was  even  elected  class  president,  but  on  the  inside  I  still  felt  like  a  freak.  All  I  really  wanted  was  to  look  like  everyone  else.  When  things  got  really  bad,  I  would  cry  to  my  mama  and  she  would  look  at  me  with  loving  eyes  and  say,  "Hold  your  head  up  high  and  face  the  world.  Let  them  see  the  beauty  that  is  inside."
When  I  met  the  man  who  became  my  partner  for  life,  we  looked  each  other  straight  in  the  eye,  and  he  told  me  I  was  beautiful  inside  and  out.  He  meant  it.  My  mama's  love  and  encouragement  were  the  spark  that  gave  me  the  confidence  to  overcome  my  own  doubt.  I  had  faced  adversity,  encountered  my  problems  head  on,  and  learned  not  only  to  appreciate  myself  but  to  have  deep  compassion  for  others.
"Hold  your  head  up  high,"  has  been  heard  many  times  in  my  home.  Each  of  my  children  has  felt  its  invitation.  The  gift  my  mama  gave  me  lives  on  in  another  generation.

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