Beauty Is In the Mind of the Beheld

"Beauty is the opposite of perfection. It's about confidence, charisma, and character." -#Nordstrom

Last night, Dateline aired an episode featuring four young people who were all considering plastic surgery. Each of them felt extremely low self-esteem and had felt bullied to varying extents because of their looks. At first sight, these young men and women each had some prominent and remarkable facial feature that stood out. However, after hearing them talk for only a few moments, those features receded to the background, and their hearts shone through. Sadly, most of us can relate to feeling like a freak in some way or another. In our society, Barbie doll looks are revered, and we go to great lengths to achieve them. Even men have succumbed and these days, tanned, hairless, manicured model is the new prototype. Me, I am on a mission. I want our children to learn at the earliest age possible that beauty comes from within. It comes from loving yourself. And if you insist on limiting that label to some physical attribute, then look into my eyes.  It is almost impossible to look into someone's eyes and not see their soul. Love, compassion, joy, pain, hope, humor; all the beauty of living is visible in our eyes. I'm not sure how we regress from childhood through middle-age -when we are considered past our prime physical attributes, and forget what it means to be beautiful. Somewhere in those pre-adolescent years, our own beauty becomes shrouded in a massive cloud of judgment. Suddenly, all that matters is looking like everyone else. And when we don't, we compensate by doing like everyone else. And it takes decades to overcome the trauma of being analyzed, criticized, judged, and denied by the one who truly matters. Yourself. We waste years searching for our misplaced self-esteem. We can't remember the last time we had it, but we think we might have left it in someone else's hands back in middle school. Still can't find it? Ok, go ahead and do your hair and make-up. Put on something pretty. Admire your efforts and then get right up to the mirror and look yourself in the eyes. There it is. That's funny, your beauty has been there the whole time.