True beauty

Hello! Happy Wednesday!

I've had reason to think about body image and cultural perceptions of beauty as of late. It's so easy to get caught up in the endless-pursuit-of-beauty cycle - "must lose weight, must tame hair, must own *insert popular brand* jeans, must, must, must...." As my strike back against this in myself, I've started compiling a list of what defines true beauty - what measures we can use that see the inherent dignity and worth of others and ourselves, rather than a jeans size or a certain makeup style. So, I've started a little challenge for myself - seeking to identify what's really beautiful in others, and making that my standard. (I'm not discounting God's standard, either, by any means - rather, I'm attempting to reinforce it in my own small way by trying to find it where it exists in the culture around me, making it easier to connect the world I live in with what I know in my head to be true.)

So, here's my challenge for myself, which I also now pass along to you (you never knew you'd have homework if you read this!): the next time you go out in public - to the mall, the grocery store, school, work, etc. - see how many of the things on this list you can identify in people around you:

• A great laugh
• A parent bonding with their child
• An act of kindness
• A genuine smile
• Kind words to a stranger
• An intelligent remark
• (Feel free to expand the list! And when you think of more, let me know!)

Then, after making note of the people exhibiting these, ask yourself: are they beautiful? Chances are, the answer is yes, and it has nothing to do with emulating star-studded awards shows or magazine spreads. Envy these traits - not figure or hairstyle or anything on the cover of Cosmo. They're easier to attain than the airbrushed (and unreal) perfection, and they make the world a better place. Every person has the opportunity to be drop-dead gorgeous, and weighing yourself by these means a lot more in the end than the scale does.

Shannon