Blushing and Bruising – Two experiences constantly affecting human psychology. You blush and bruise so many times a day, you don’t pay too much attention to it. Unless of course, you are blushing because you have fallen in love recently or you are bruised because you have been dumped recently. When you are fifteen and you already look like a grown up man you blush, when you are forty and being referred to somebody going down the hill, you bruise. When your boss praises you for a job well done, you blush. When he or she says you could do better, you bruise. You blush when you see a couple getting intimate in public places. You blush like a teenager ( do they blush at these sights anymore?) even if you are nearing 40. Your ego is bruised when one fine day your grown up daughter stops asking you what outfit to buy. You blush when somebody comments that you have slimmed down and you bruise when you take time to get ready and your friends tell you look tired.

These two emotions attack our psyche sometimes so violently that we are changed forever, but most of the times you blush and normalize in a second and you bruise and rebound so quickly that they become routine. I am curious about these two constant companions of mine, so I checked their dictionary meanings. (of course I knew what they mean.)

The definition of blushing – A suffusion of the cheeks or face with red, as from a sense of shame, confusion, or modesty.

The definition of bruising – To hurt, especially psychologically.

Things that don’t make you blush or bruise – sitting on a quiet sandy beach, tasting the smell of salt on your lips and the sound of water in your ears and feeling the crispness of wind in your face. You feel contended.

Next time …………..maybe I can write about ‘being contended’.