I know it will be hard to believe that I am about to write that letting my eyebrows grow in is a bit of a Zen exercise, but I kid not. I’ve pretty much been complaining about the shape of my brows for a few years now and just kept plucking and repeating the same mistakes, even with the help of “pros.”

However, finally, a random Tweet about Sania of Sania’s Brow Bar in Manhattan made me recall that I had read about her in a magazine. Turns out she’s been in most prominent women’s magazines because she specializes in shaping brows to frame your face.

I have visited her twice now and there is an incremental process in the works that will get my brows to a shaplier and more flattering place. But in the meantime, I must let them grow in, which is partly liberating and partly excruciating because I look like a grizzly bear. Sania is on vacation and my next appointment with her is not until August 19.

“Throw away your magnified mirror,” she said. “I’ll know if you don’t.”

So I am learning discipline, a means to an end, keeping the greater good in sight. Maybe not what Buddha had in mind, but …