"I don't believe makeup and the right hairstyle alone
can make a woman beautiful.
The most radiant woman in the room
is the one full of life and experience."
I find it time and time again
that Sarah has read my thoughts,
and lived my life.
I wonder if it's the same with you.
Here it is again in full,
with a little of me too.
Start Quote
The times I felt most beautiful
were on my wedding day,
the day I gave birth to our daughter,
and the first time I taught Simple Abundance in a workshop setting.
But on the day I got married I couldn't get my hair to look right.
[For me, I had acne all over my face, my eyebrows had been picked to near non existence and I had wanted a flower in my hair and it just didn't work right...I should have just taken it out, but gosh darn it I wanted that stupid flower]
While my future husband stood waiting uncomfortably in a room full of curious and bemused guests, I fussed with my hair so much that I was twenty minutes late for my own wedding.
[I wasn't late though. I think we woke up at 4am, and were at our friend's house at 5, to do myself, my mom, and three bridesmaids]
Since we were being married in the home of friends and I was upstairs in a second-floor bedroom, he had every reason to wonder why I couldn't get to the ceremony on time.
Finally, I just put my veiled hat on and went downstair
with a smile to start my new life.
When friends see my wedding picture today they never comment on my hair; instead they mention the jubilant happiness showing on my face.
The next time I felt like the most beautiful woman in the world was the day our daughter was born. In these pictures I look like a beached beluga while sitting up in a hospital bed, but I'm still beaming. The beams are what I notice now.
[I had gained a pound a day the last week or so of Jacob's pregnancy. It was all water weight. Beached whale I can definitely understand, that is the one and only time I've ever had a double chin. But I did feel beautiful.]
[The twins was an emergency c-section, it was the second time I went into labor and there was no stopping this one. Instead of a beached whale I looked like a zombie, too skinny and pale because they sucked everything out of me.
But I still felt beautiful.]
After I taught my first Simple Abundance workshop and came back to my hotel room, I accidentally caught a glimpse of a
beautiful woman
and I was genuinely astonished.
"Who are you?" I asked the face in the mirror
and my authentic self smiled back at me.
The workshop had been so fulfilling, exciting, and inspiring, and I had experienced such rapport with the women who attended, that
I was caught up in the exhilarating flow of life and it showed.
Here's the secret I stumbled upon when trying to solve the beauty puzzle.
The situations in my life in which I felt beautiful were all different,
but love was the common denominator that transformed me,
not the outer trappings:
love for my husband, love for our child, love for my work.
This is perhaps the most important beauty lesson any of us can ever learn.
Love has the power to transcend our physical limitations.
'The more I wonder,' Alice Walker confesses, 'the more I love.'
Let us continuously search for the wonder of it all.
If we do, we can't help but notice the love bubbling up from deep within.
When wonder and love become as indispensable to you
as foundation and blush,
you will become the most radiant woman in the world.
End Quote
How about you, when have you felt the most beautiful?
***
Gratitude Journal
***
1) Robbie is on the mend...hopefully. Stomach bugs suck.
2) No one else has got it.
3) I finished arranging some music that I've been putting off. Check.
4) Laying out on the grass, in the evening sun, holding the dog.
5) The quiet of night.
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