purse to grasp for pennies her fingers cannot discern.

Oblivious to this melange of characters, personalities and races, the young man walks amid the crowd, lost in a land of music played to him through speakers barely visible which fit neatly into his ears, allowing him the luxury of isolation. Others with cell phones lose the ability to communicate anything of value as they chat into their little black hand held devices in babble they managed to live without before cell phones existed. It's a kind of deviation away from having to get on with life and be self dependent.

The black lady in the huge pink frock wobbles her way between stalls, her back end moving in a beat which belies her size. Hair frizzed and natural, her arms show softened skin, warmed by the sunshine, and contrasting against her white handbag. The lady beside her has dyed hair and the roots have begun to expose themselves, gray and white peppered colors which play with the light, and give away her intimate secrets.

Yet others top off balding heads with berets and huge smiles, short sleeved shirts tucked into linen trousers, bagged at the middle by leather belts. Lovers wall arm in arm, one body becoming an extension of the other, as if it would crumble and lose significance if one part of that whole were to vanish.

How fragile and temporary are our lives. In the mixture of old fashioned hairstyles and fashionable psychopathic crops, all of the presentation makes sense. The young girl passes in her hippy hemp dress. Her willowy figure and flowing and natural hairstyle giving her a look of optimism and good will towards earth.

It is then that the last drop of coffee hits my lips, and I wonder what people see when they observe me. Perhaps they see a middle aged woman past her prime, whose beauty faded in favor of wage, and whose waistline was betrayed by time. Perhaps they see a kind of fatality or inevitability that all things change, just as do the seasons of the year, each season in life bringing out different elements of approach and intention. No matter the diversity of mankind. One thing is sure. This is that every element of mankind has its place and its reason for existence and that without any one element, there would not be a world that is whole. There is room for all kinds of people, and that is what living on earth allows us to appreciate, helping us to be who we are without regret or wishes to be anything other than just that. My beauty has gone, though within each person on earth, the perception of beauty becomes clearer as it transforms into a much stronger element, that of acceptance.

Learn more about this author, Rachelle de Bretagne.
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