True beauty

Ok. I want to talk about TRUE beauty. What is it? Where does it come from?  I’m no expert. I battle with my own demons all the time, but here’s what I’m learning as I get wiser. Here’s what freedom I’m finding in the years under my belt. Beauty radiates from WITHOUT. What you think and feel INSIDE is what is put out to the WORLD. 

My body is not perfect. I have thigh dimples (thank you “friend” in high school for pointing out the obvious).  My stomach has some extra lbs. or LOVE language hanging on.  I have some passport stamps on my body from every journey into motherhood.  4 live births, 1 loss and YEARS of trying.  Those journeys leave a mark in your passport! I’m proud. I’m a traveler. I’ve journeyed far and love the ground I’ve covered. I’m like a perfect weathered leather suitcase. The one that is loved and worn in with years of LOVE under the belt.  New can be nice, but new isn’t always comfortable.

But let’s pause. Let’s reflect. Who do we LOVE? Who do we admire? Who do we gravitate toward? The skin and bones skeleton of women with no personality?  Or do we LOVE that women, who is sexy, self-confident and radiates love and beauty from within? We love what makes us COMFORTABLE.  For goodness sakes!! Kiddos love to SNUGGLE the boobies! The soft squishy parts of us that make us LOVING.  No one wants to snuggle up to a hard cold rock (unless you are Bella and have fallen in love with a vampire.)

We love REAL. We love the Velveteen Rabbit.  We love HONEST (in an non-huring way). We love the kind of woman, who, regardless of whether there are rolls when she bends over to pick up her 4^th child, or waves at a friend as she’s driving with her top on her convertible down…these are women LIVING life.  Not apologizing for it – LIVING it.  Marilyn Monroe was supposedly a “curvy” woman.  Supposeldy a size “8” or higher.  All I know is she w  She was multifaceted. She had LAYERS of intrigue and mystique! She was comfortable in her skin, or if she wasn’t, she led a life like she was!!  We love those “plus size” (shoot me for using the term), actresses who are REAL!!!!  Because they aren’t trying to hide behind perfection. They aren’t trying to hide behind a skeletal semblance of a woman!

Life is short. It is. Stop SELF-HATING. Stop the race to try to reduce your size below your skeletal frame.  Control is not attainable!!  It’s not!! Control isn’t even  MANAGEABLE to be honest! –We can TRY live the PERFECT life – staying out of the sun, working out, eating right etc. etc. and then DIE in a freak accident.

I’d like to posit:  it’s the WAY in which we live our year and the WAY in which we own our bodies (not our bodies owning us), that is the most ATTRACTIVE.  I have to say, there is nothing sexier to me in my life, than seeing my husband in the pool with my kids playing with them. I do not CARE how he looks.  I only care that he’s there.  It’s time we set the egotism aside. It’s time we focused OUTWARD rather than inward and make some significant changes.

So when you are tempted to criticize: “I can’t believe she’s wearing this,” or “I can’t believe she has that many kids,” or  “I’d NEVER do this, say that or wear that,” or “I can’t believe she’s really selling makeup… let’s remember that it criticism is easy. Loving is harder. Loving someone else means that you can love your own flaws enough to love someone else’s’ flaws.  Loving someone else means you are confident in your OWN inn beauty to let someone else’s light shine bright!