I stand on the beach while the sun sets. The light has already transitioned into a warm orange mask. It drapes itself over everything in sight. I’m waiting for that point in which the day turns into twilight; that one instantaneous moment when the sky flashes green and then fades. I wait, and I recollect.

You asked me to draw you. At first you didn’t know how to pose, you got self conscious, you told me to change something about yourself. You said to me “turn me into art”. I tried, but I failed. I couldn’t render the face that didn’t understand itself. In frustration I broke the mirror that I sat in front of and I looked down at the pieces of you. These are the images that mock me. I find myself angry because I am confused, because I don’t recognize the person staring back at me in these shards of glass.

I’ve been waiting and finally you came. You come to me on the beach when the ocean swallows the sun; in that one brilliant moment when an illuminating green extinguishes the hot orange sky. You are the sun, the wind, and the moon; the waves crashing into the sand; the tide. You are standing right next to me. I feel my eyes water so I take a deep breath and turn around to return to the group of women who watched this discovery but hadn’t noticed. The bon fire was dying and the energy had gone down, it was time to go home.

I stare at myself in the mirror and accept the woman who stares back; however, I still don’t quite understand her. I don’t think I ever will, and it’s okay.