Having put on the final blush, I took one last look at it; I adjusted a collar on my shirt, looked again and smiled at what was staring back at me. I smiled because it occurred to me that I actually do love this piece of glass. Defined as “any reflecting surface, as the surface of calm water under certain lighting conditions”, mirrors can be quite truly fascinating objects. To some the mirror helps you look good but far more than that for me, I see it as a tool to help me express the person/picture on the inside. As long as I keep looking, no matter how long it takes, I can eventually conform to the image in my subconscious.

This thought, I held as I drove to the post office to drop off today's parcels and it occurred to me that my “posties” son was helping him out, I would say he was a real chip of the old block. With his carriage, smile and professionalism, I could see him solely handling this post office in a few short years. He was truly becoming his father…

It must have been a day for mother-daughter reflections as it was for father-son because at my next stop, I noticed my pharmacist daughter helping her sort out patients prescriptions. Amazing! The little girl I saw running around the playground a few short years back was maturing into a young woman and enjoying being her mothers reflection – a pharmacist in the making

Perhaps I thought, I should give these rare coincidences a bit more thought. I looked my daughter sternly in the face and asked ‘what would you like to be when you grow up?’ with a smile on her face, she said ‘I would love to be a year 3 teacher in a school in Richmond.’ Hmmm that statement said a lot for to know my daughter well means to know that she is an excitable year 3 pupil thought by the “poshest’ teacher you can think of. She was simply telling me she wanted to become like her beloved teacher.

Children have the natural tendency to gravitate towards the person they relate to most. As they keep looking and relating, they tend to want to become that person. Reminds me of one of my favourite bible verses “So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image – 2nd Cor 3:18” The writer here alludes to the fact that we become more and more like God as we look at the mirror (Gods word) and develop an intimacy with it.

What a truly powerful thought! To know that I can somehow influence my person by what I surround myself with!! As I drove back home, I knew something had definitely changed forever. Parenting will take a new level from now just because I know that everyone can benefit from the influences that surround them…