#89- Aloe

My old photo instructor at Centretown News would be proud; I sacrificed my body to get the perfect photos for my new job.

Last Saturday I bravely weathered the harsh heat of the sun to take pictures of games all day for the rugby club I'm working for and I came away with a couple of things: a sense of pride and joy at having taken some decent looking photos and a wicked sun burn that hurt at the slightest touch.

I try not to think of the pain and the peeling, but instead of the duty I have to take great pictures, although this is kind of hard to do when a slight wind causes so much pain and you look like Elmo with blond hair.

No it's not easy being green, but I would say it's much harder being red.

But that's why aloe is such an amazing thing.

When I put that creamy, cool, slightly weird smelling lotion on my burns I swear I could see steam coming off my skin, but I felt an immense relief and praised that prickly little plant for producing something as heavenly as aloe lotion.

And although the aloe didn't completely heal my burns, it helped decrease the pain and damage to my skin. It prevented the peeling that makes me look like a human snake just in time for graduation. And it allowed me to put my arms down to my sides when before I couldn't even do that for the pain touching my shirt would give burns.

So I am grateful for aloe. I am grateful that when I was so very stupid to forget to put on sunscreen, it was there for me in my time of need and too-late repentance. I am grateful that aloe is nature's sunburn nurse that helped me counter nature's branding irons. And I am grateful that the aloe vera plant abides by the don't-judge-a-book-by-its-cover mantra because its spiky exterior hides an amazing medicine.