My Husband returned with a noisy sack of ceramic shards, which I proceeded to wet with pity sogged tears. What had been my long coveted candlesticks had returned from Thanksgiving dinner as an anthropological remnant.
Bereavement soon gave way to resolve and superglue. And I painstakingly mended each and every recovered piece properly into place. Reborn, my candlesticks are more beautiful to me now. I love their broken lines, the tiny cracks, the uneven outline. Part of me and my determination is in them.
They aren’t perfect, they are beautiful.
Finding beauty more often does not make it any less valuable. By applying the label of beauty more liberally our lives only become richer.
Search beauty out and you will appreciate it more. Don’t settle for the obvious or ostentatious, curate a collection of unconventional beauty: the wood grain of a dumpster grate, the gentle curve of a wilted rose, the repetition of color at the ninety-nine cent store.
Children are much better at this than adults. Adults have been trained in a strict definition of beauty and fail to see the sparkle in concrete, the wonder in soap wrappers.
By expanding our construct of beauty, we are able to fit ourselves inside of it.
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Great post! I think this quote by Sir Francis Bacon complements your thoughts: There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.
This post made me sit back and find something about myself that I’ve never thought of as beautiful. Today I discovered that I am a beautiful height. At a towering 60 inches 😉 I do not fit into the mold of beauty that much of our society tries to force women into. But I love my height and today I found the beauty in it.
I look forward to the rest of the body love challenges. 😉
Beautifully written, as usual! I am learning to accept my small chest and how perfectly it fits onto my body. I also am going to try and appreciate my eyes more. I’ve always had issues with them. xoxo
I love this-
http://pinterest.com/pin/104638391312026334/
I’ll go through periods where I think I am great! My shape is good, my hair is pretty, my life is lovely. And then I start comparing. And I feel that awful gray cloud come in and cover all that contentedness I’d been enjoying. There are so many different types of beautiful. I need to be happy with my type.
Love this!! I love the candlestick story too. Thanks for some inspiration on a dreary Saturday morning.
This is such a wonderful challenge! As someone who has struggled with an eating disorder and body image most of my life I love finding challenges like this. I am trying to find the beauty of my body as a healthy weight , through cooking balanced meals and enjoying every bite! Thanks for this 🙂
I have a brown mole that sticks out on my neck that I used to despise. I remember going to girl’s camp and people kept thinking it was dirt or chocolate or something. The last few years I’ve grown to love it. My husband always tells me “it’s the differences that make you beautiful” and I truly believe that. My mole is my beauty mark. Even when babies try to pull it off my neck. It’s part of me and I love it.