Beauty

Recently there has been a lot of video sharing on facebook with titles like "See how this daddy changed his daughter's life forever", "Model shooting for a day and what photoshop does and how they didn't like it". Of course we all remember this very impacting and beautiful video by dove. It is so interesting how especially we women seem to struggle with image of beauty so much how we always want to be stunning and beautiful but we always complain about the areas we think are not pretty. Talk with a woman for some time and you'll find out. But oh how she lightens up when you tell her she is beautiful.
I was lucky to grow up in a family who would always tell my sister and me that we were beautiful and captivating and worthy. We both learned that beauty is not mere outward appearance but something that comes from the inside - your personality, your character.
I don't know if you have ever experienced this moment when you thought a person was really beautiful and then you get to know them and somehow the beauty fades because of the way the person is  (bad attitude, unkind, full of trouble and greed e.g.) and the beauty was only appearance. Or when you meet somebody and at first look they don't strike you as remarkably beautiful (in the "common sense" of beauty) but with every conversation and moment you get to know this person they grow to become more and more beautiful?
I know I have experienced both it always being proof for me that true beauty really does come from the inside. I also believe that there is beauty in everyone. We just have to look for it, allow it come out.
About two weeks ago I saw some pictures of myself from the Winter Days and started the whole thought train on what I didn't like in the picture, that I look too big, not pretty enough etc. when all of a sudden I paused for a moment and remembered how I had felt that day and that indeed I had felt beautiful that day. In that very instant I turned my head from the picture and walked away in my thoughts not allowing the "I'm not good enough" to take hold of me.

So I really want to encourage us all and especially the women out there to stop thinking about all the things that are wrong and start thinking about all the things which are right. You are beautiful beyond measure, you are wanted and worthy, lovely, enough, you have what it takes.

xoxo

Ramona

Pictures in my head

The other day I biked home from work and it started to rain and at some point of the ride I just looked skywards and said, "ok, rain, today I surrender to you."
My ride goes through some pretty beautiful places and riding there with the rain pouring down and my being a hopeless romantic you can imagine (or maybe you can't) the films going on my head.
I kind of started laughing at myself thinking, "all these movies have really corrupted my thinking and imagination and because of them I see all these things in my head."

But then I remembered being a little girl playing outside in the fields and imagining all these stories. I had films and pictures in my mind of grand romance and adventure and I could hear the music playing to these scenes and I could build this whole world in my head. And that is exactly how it still is. The movies have definitely influenced it and probably sharpened it in many ways but the films have always been there.

So I guess it is how Stasi Eldredge so very wonderfully said in her book Captivating: "... every woman in her heart of hearts longs for three things: to be romanced, to play an irreplaceable role in a great adventure, and to unveil beauty."

How we desire these things and how we imagine them is different for all of us. For me it's films in my head and music and great romance which reminds me that the desire is there and that I agree with every single word of this quote.

xoxo

Ramona


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