Naked Beauty

       Sometimes I like to sit and think about all of the things that I hate doing.  I know that I shouldn't dwell, but some chores are simply no fun and a waste of my life.  Dishes, laundry, vacuuming, working, doing my hair, shaving, applying make-up, painting my nails...wait a second.  At least half of the tasks that I just listed don't REALLY need to be done.  Do they?  As a child I couldn't wait until I was old enough to do all of the "big girl" things like what I saw my grandmother doing.  You really need the full picture here: my grandmother was from Alabama.  She never left her bedroom in the morning until her face was "on", her hair was curled, and her perfectly ironed blouse was tucked snugly into the waistband of her slacks.  This was the same woman who weighed herself everyday, re-painted her nails if there was even the tiniest of chips in the lacquer, and carried her poodle like a fashion statement.  She was high-class country, and my grandpa thought himself lucky to have snagged himself a "Lineville girl".  My grandma, who insisted on being called Grandmother Ellen, was the first consistent female role model in my life.  She would roll in her grave if she knew that I was writing this without a bra on.  So thirty years later, like her, I wake in the morning and put on my face before work, pin back my long hair, and spritz on perfume.  At the end of the day I wash my face and weigh myself and powder my bottom.  ...I think I just made myself throw up a little in the back of my mouth.  You see?  Times have changed, WE have changed, but we're still doing the same old things.  Society's idea of beauty is still skinny, plucked, shaven, polite, and waxed.  Here's the kicker: I know that I don't want to conform and wear makeup just because it makes me more pleasant for people to look at, but I still will because I want to feel pretty.  I hate taking the time to shave my body everyday, but I'll still feel self-conscious if I haven't done it in a while.  It's like it has been ingrained in us to please others by altering our own bodies, and it's so hard to retrain our brains not to think that way because everyone else still does it too.  The first time I ever met my sister-in-law was at a pool party in the late afternoon.  She had just driven in from California, or Colorado, or wherever she lived at that particular time, and it had been a long journey.  Her curly, red hair was uncombed and her bra straps were falling down her shoulders.  She reached out and wrapped her arms around me in the warmest hug that I had ever experienced, and I noticed that she had underarm hair.  Like, a LOT of armpit hair.  And she didn't give a flying shit!  It did not register to her at all that it may be weird for people to see that she hadn't shaved in a few weeks, especially since she was wearing a sleeveless shirt.  I LOVE her!  She likes to creatively paint her face from time to time, almost like a canvas for her next art project, but she doesn't feel the need to wear cover-up daily.  Her hair is so wild that she couldn't tame it if she tried, and I'm so glad that she doesn't even bother.  She is wild and open, honest and FREE.  Other people can see whatever they want to see when they look at her, but when I look at her I see naked beauty and pure reality.  We are all beautiful, just the way we are.  Anyone who thinks differently should probably check their own ideas of beauty.  Let them be the ones with the confining societal standards, I'd rather just be me.
What's your idea of beauty?

"Embracing your true self radiates a natural beauty that cannot be diluted or ignored.  Confident, powerful, untamable, badass you!" - Dr. Steve Maraboli