Being beautiful

I was getting dressed the other day and glanced up at the wedding pictures I have up on the wall in our bedroom.  I looked at the youthful pictures of the Farmer and I, ridiculously (but wonderfully) in love without a care in the world.  In some respects it feels like yesterday and other days it feels like a lifetime ago.

What really stuck me was that I really did look every bit the beautiful bride....I know that seems kinda up myself but I when I think back I was really hung up about being "fat"  Now I have reason to worry as I most certainly have retained extra weight from kids, chip & dip and lack of exercise - but I know all that and am not going to delve into that, well for now at least.

There is a very strong ideal about what is beautiful and what you should be like to look the part.  That you need to spend money on nice clothes, good hair, white gleaming smile, being thin and all the rest of that bollocks.  But for the more mature (and I don't mean old) of us we realise that it's not about that at all.

........and even if you had all that money, flash clothes, super trim body you may still never be beautiful.

We all face our own hang ups about whats wrong with us, legs, arms, tum, bum - whatever.  And I'm no different don't get me wrong, but what I would like to think is that the beautiful us shines through - past all that.

I'm pretty sure my Mum told be being beautiful comes from the inside and I fobbed it off in all my teenage wisdom as the line you get handed when your not the beautiful kid.  But, by hokey, it is true.

Being beautiful is in a smile, in a laugh, in the way you hug your child, the way you love others and treat your friends and family.  It's most noticeable when you think no ones watching.  It's not about how you look, it's about who you are.  And even if you think your not beautiful, people see it within you, perhaps long before you yourself see it.