The Masked Mirror

       The time has come for me to draw back the curtain and allow the masses to stare upon the face of a masked woman. Some of my social media followers may be surprised to find that my profile pictures are not actually of "me".  A hooded woman walks a field through my Instagram account while a tattoo'd woman stands guard at my Facebook page.  These women are not "Jain", but they are me, and I am you.  I have made the conscious decision not to openly advertise my face, because it is not what makes me who I am.  How can an Indian woman look upon one picture of a white woman and think, "that is my sister", and how can an Asian woman look upon a figure of an African-American woman and say, "she is my kin"?  THEY SHOULD, but the sad truth is that we are all a little selfish.  We are only human, and we make instantaneous judgments before we truly know the other persons story, the part of them that makes them like us.  I choose to shed my physical form so that I can easily relate to ALL women.  I do not want you to look at me and see white or black, skinny or fat, tall or short, pretty or ugly.  I want you to look at me and see a reflection of yourself.  We are all one woman.  We bring all of our colors and shapes and originality to this safe space.  We will look out upon the crowd of women in this place and smile with pride at the diverse authenticity that is our earth.  We can all bow our heads and allow our tears to mingle into one salty pool because we know that a common evil has ravaged us all.  But we still stand tall with our sisters to help hold us up!  I want to deeply apologize to anyone who feels shocked at learning the familiar form on my profile is not the true semblance of my face.  I know that it is hard to trust in this world, and I understand.  My intent is never to trick or hide, but only ever to empower and make myself human so that we can connect on a deeper level.  I will leave you with this challenge: open your heart.  I challenge you to accept yourself exactly as you are.  I challenge you to love every woman in this community just as they are.  I challenge you to embrace your originality as we nourish your uniqueness.  Only by holding onto what makes us special can we converge into one unit of womankind.  Convergence is defined as the tendency of unrelated animals and plants to evolve similar characteristics under similar environmental conditions.  My hope is that by supporting each other and encouraging each of the women in our community that we can all become of one mind.  We will not see color or body shape, but we will BE ONE.  We will BE REFLECTIONS of more than just the pain that we have all stumbled through, we will be reflections of STRENGTH, PURITY, and LOVE.  WE ARE EVERY WOMAN.  I would like to openly invite every woman to send me a picture of themselves.  I would like to use these photos as my profile picture so that every person who needs validation and gives support has a chance to be featured as a representation of who we are.  I would prefer all pictures to be of you doing something that you love, but with the focus being on something other than your face. We are all human, we are all perfect through our imperfections, and we are all ONE.
Who's in your mirror?

Please send all pictures to jainravensun@gmail.com