You’re More Beautiful Than You Know

My face is fat,

my nose is flat,

my eyes are much too dull.

 

My lips are thin,

I hate my chin,

My hair is way too full.

 

I wish I had what that girl has,

Her waist, her thighs, her nose.

The way her hair falls perfectly,

and all her pretty clothes.

 

But, "No," you say,

"You're fine this way,

Don’t you know its true?

Of all the people you could be,

You're lucky to be you.”

 

I shake my head,

My eyes are red,

I wish I could agree.

Of all the people in this world,

I don’t feel lucky to be me.

 

So I turn away,

And you softly say,

"I wish you'd see the glow,

That's shining from the depths of you,

You're more beautiful than you know".

 

(okay, okay, so I’m not a poet, but it was worth a shot.)

 

I watched this video last night and had to immediately hit replay because the first time I watched I could hardly see through the tears welling up in my eyes. It spoke to me. Like it was meant for me at that given moment in time, and the truth is, I think it's meant for all of us.

In today's world, we as women (and men), are constantly bombarded with images and ideas of what we should look like like, how we should act, what we should wear and who we should be. It’s exhausting, and it’s unfair, and most of the time it isn’t even true, yet we try and try to live up to these standards that were never our standards in the first place. We worry about every line on our faces, every blemish on our cheeks. I’ve added a few inches to my waist in the last two years and those inches have been haunting me ever since and causing me to hate my body. I hate the way it moves and the way it feels and the way those inches glare back at me when I stand in the mirror and ruthlessly criticize. And that just isn’t fair.

This is MY body. This is MY face. And it’s a lovely face. It’s the face of my ancestors. It’s the eyes of my father and the lips of my mother. It’s mine. And it doesn’t need to be changed. I’m developing crow’s feet around my eyes, but that’s because I smile a lot. And when I’m kissed by the sun, my freckles stand out and shout from the rooftops of my forehead, but my mother gave me those freckles. And sometimes those dark circles under my eyes appear because I stayed up too late watching movies and cuddling with my sweet boyfriend. And despite the fact that the world tells me that those lines and freckles and circles are things that I should be ashamed of, they aren’t, because they represent me. And that is beautiful.

We ARE more beautiful than we know. And we have to believe that because it is the truth. There is no one like me, and there is no one like you and THAT, my friends, is such a sweet gift. We are unique and we each offer something to this world that no one else can. My hope is that we remember this and while we strive to uplift each other and remind each other of our unique beauty, I hope that we also realize the importance of reminding OURSELVES that we are beautiful. Because we are.

We are more beautiful than we know.

Take 7 minutes and watch this video. I hope it speaks to you the way it spoke to me.