It can be hard sometimes to feel beautiful on the Race.
I don't have a lot of clothes in my pack, and the ones I do have aren't exactly what I would wear at home. My selection of accessories and makeup and hair tools and products are pretty slim.
I'm sweaty a lot of the time. Gym shorts have now become an acceptable item of clothing to wear outside of the gym. Makeup only happens sometimes. My "dressy" shoes are a pair of Toms and my "cute" shirt is a black tank top. My stretchy headbands have become my best friends.
And while I've learned so much about not tying the things I wear or how I fix my hair to my identity, there are days where I just long to feel normal. I want to put on a cute dress or an outfit that makes me feel spectacular and curl my hair and rock a pair of great boots! It doesn't make me who I am, but I like fashion and fixing my hair and feeling pretty. Beauty is fun for me, and I'm ok with that!
So I've admittedly been thinking a lot about how I look and what I wear lately because I've been frustrated by my lack of options. But yesterday I spent the morning with some women who gave me a new perspective on beauty.
As soon as I laid eyes on them they took my breath away. They were stunning.
Every line told a story. Every wrinkle an experience, every spot, a year lived.
Their eyes held wisdom and knowledge and experience and life and love and stories beyond what my mind can comprehend at my age.
We couldn't communicate with words, but we sat together and laughed and held hands, smiled and took in the world. I told them over and over how beautiful they were. I took their photos and showed them the images – "you are so beautiful!" They just laughed at me.
And they are beautiful. Not the kind of beautiful you get out of a bottle or off of a hanger. The kind of beautiful that runs deep. That you can only earn by living and loving and doing life for a long time. Their beauty transcends culture and current trends. It's in their very being.
As I hugged them goodbye it was with a renewed spirit and a refreshed perspective. They have the kind of beauty that I want. I want beauty that radiates from my heart and my spirit. What I have in my pack doesn't matter so much.
(But that's not gonna stop me from rocking those boots when I get home!) 🙂
