Be-you-tiful Re-Visited and Replayed

Originally posted in 2014.
I have been asked to post this again.
; )

You might have read some of my opinions on 

BEAUTY 

before, 

if you have read my blog for a long time.

Every woman on earth has reflected on this 

topic at one time or another.

Ya,

the world is full of memes now...

you are be-you-tiful

and 

catchy stuff like that.

Yet, there are those plastic

magazines telling tales of

how to BE

better, younger, smarter, etc.

Blasted magazines.

Do all of this.. 

and you can be 

THIS!

"But remember.....

beauty is not just on the outside....

it is what's inside as well."

I personally choose not to look at magazines

or read them.

They want my money.

; )

Plus,

they don't like the REAL me!

So, when I went to San Diego a few weeks ago

I was trying to decide what I would read on the plane.

Something light, short, entertaining...

I'd seen this book before,

but was afraid it would be full of

meme-ish sweetened garbage that kind of makes

me groan sometimes.

Heading out of Walmart I was at whits end,

and just grabbed it on the way to the checkout stand

simply because I was attracted to the cover

(I am pretty shallow sometimes).

To my surprise, it wasn't what I thought at all!

It was

GOOD!

Small essays on varied individuals perspective of

their own beauty in their lives.

I found it rather fascinating!

I especially was intrigued by the ladies who put it together.

And....there is a man's perspective on his OWN beauty 

as well, which is refreshing.

Authors:

LaNae Valentine is the director of Women’s Services and Resources at Brigham Young University. When she’s not working to support, connect, and empower women she enjoys visiting family and friends, cycling through Utah’s back roads and canyons, cooking, reading, and doing yoga.

Lisa Tensmeyer Hansen finished raising seven children and is having a hard time sitting still. A doctoral candidate at Brigham Young University in marriage and family therapy, she is a managing editor of the BYU Women’s Studies Journal, serves on the board of local arts organizations, writes music with her husband, and walks every morning with her BFF.

So in honor of the 

'old me'.

I am re-posting something I wrote

awhile ago.

This is me in a 2009 post on a separate blog

(wow!  5 years ago!)

April 19, 2009

On Self Worth

Soooo...loving ourselves has been on my mind alot lately for some reason.

Maybe it's the Easter season and reflection

on what our Savior has done for us,

I don't know.

But, I have issues.  ; )

I have been self loathing.

Yes, that's right, self loathing.

My whole life, as far back as I can remember, I have compared myself to others

and never really felt I cut the mustard, so to speak. 

(My first birthday party on the block in El Sobrante, CA, 

maybe I was 2???)

Where I picked this up, I don't know.  

I came from a loving, successful family.

I think it is just an unfortunate part of who I am.

Soooo....I have done the negative self- talk for years, knowing it was

something I should over come, that it was wrong because I really couldn't be THAT bad, could I?  And then one day.....a while back.....

I vowed to stop.

I was so sick and tired of feeling bad all of the time.

Too many years...a life time of beating myself up. 

I just wanted to feel happy with myself.

Like who I was. 

Not listen to the world, or others who felt otherwise.

Turn off the TV, stop reading magazines,  say "You are wrong" to those ads.

Just say "no" to feeling bad about myself.

Not to let anything take my courage away.

I am happy to say I am a reformed self- loather.

I fall off the wagon every now and then, but I talk myself out of falling into

the helpless pit of self-pity.

And what has made the difference?

I realized how selfish it was to have self-hatred.

It made me concentrate on myself at the strangest times,

when really.....it was all about

loving my neighbor, and not thinking about myself in any way shape or form, 

meaning not concentrating on my 'negative' features.

If the Savior can love me enough to give His

life for you, and for....... me,

we all must be really something, right?

Even me?

Just maybe,

I think it hurts His feelings when I don't love myself.

I don't want to do that. 

So, be gone to the skinny ladies who want me to be like them!

Be gone to the wrinkle-free ladies who tell me my wrinkles are abnormal!

Be gone to all the smart people who say I should be smarter!

Be gone to the people who say 50 is the new 30.....my gosh I just want to be 50 and have wrinkles and forget my name every now and then and call my husband "Karl" the cat's name instead of his own name and drive like an old lady maniac and celebrate  my double chin and repeat the same story over and over and over again....

Let me be!

Cuz, I love myself now and I am worth loving as much as anyone else!  ; )

Due to the nature of being me, I of course worry

(because that's another thing I do, 

because I do it well,

I am working on reform)

and hope that others don't perceive me as a self-loving 

certified maniac,

but then I love my fellowman a whole lot and I hope that counterbalances

my new-found happiness.

So, if I had a wish in the whole wide world, I'd

wish that you too could feel the joy of knowing you are a child of God,

a person worth loving,

an individual of worth,

who is of value enough to 

celebrate....

every day you are on this 

earth,

because.....

you are loved.

Greatly loved.

And so am I.

; )

The End.

I shall step off my soap box now.

Love to you all,

my little cutie-kins.

Have a splendid Wednesday!

(and, you know I do truly think you are

be-you-tiful 

cuz I am schmarmy like that...)

xoxo

d