Laugh Lines {A Lullaby}

Several years back, well before I became a mother, I sat in a middle school library helping one of my English language learners with her homework. She was a good student but fortunately wasn’t as obsessive as some of the students in her home country who sometimes jumped out of windows if they didn’t make the grade. But there was another kind of perfectionism creeping in. As we got talking, she told me about her cousin’s obsession, how she prized her smooth, porcelain skin so much that she decided, in order to keep it wrinkle-free, she must not smile.

I’ve thought of that often, as I’ve looked into the faces of each of my babies and felt the happy creases go deeper. I guess it’s easy to have that unfazed Napoleon Dynamite expression when you’re always staring down at your own feet (or in the mirror) never really looking another human being in the eye, never putting yourself in position to experience that involuntary human reaction called the smile.

I’m a believer in the philosophy that when we spend our physical power and beauty on the happiness of others, we become happier ourselves. We become more comfortable in our own skin and though our outer self shows wear, our inner person is renewed day by day.

So, I trade a youthful face for a youthful heart. I said it in a lullaby once, after my firstborn’s first year: Take away this smoothness. Give me wrinkles in its place. I’m kicking back in a full-bellied laugh with my baby.

Click play to listen to the homespun recording of Laugh Lines.

Laugh Lines
words and music by Darcy Wiley

When I see those baby blues
Looking back into my grown up greens
There is nothing I can do
To keep from smiling

You are giving me laugh lines
With all the little games you play
Got these crows’ feet forming on my eyes
Beyond my age

But I won’t erase the evidence of life
It’s happiness giving me these lines
Oh, every day, I’m growing young inside
I won’t erase the evidence of life

You want my tired eyes to wake up
Before the clock has made a sound
But joy is the best makeup
I’ve ever found

I don’t need some expensive cream
Let the unseen be renewed
I don’t need no plastic surgery
To impress you

I won’t erase the evidence of life
It’s happiness giving me these lines
Oh, every day, I’m growing young inside
I won’t erase the evidence of life

Take away this smoothness
Give me wrinkles in its place
I’m kicking back in a full-bellied laugh
With my baby

Take away this smoothness
Give me wrinkles in its place
I’m kicking back in a full-bellied laugh
With my baby

I won’t erase the evidence of life

(© 2008, Darcy Wiley)

{If you’re a subscriber and you’d like to have this song in your personal music library, just comment below or email me at darcywileywords(at)gmail{dot}com and I’ll send you a copy. If you’re not a subscriber yet, I’d love to have you in the circle! You can keep up with Message in a Mason Jar by entering your email address on the sidebar and then confirming through the link sent to you via email.}