Last night my sister M called from a hotel in Maine. She’s there for a photo shoot for a profile in Glamour. After detailing the less than glamorous journey she experienced in getting to this tiny town in Maine, she told me about her fascinating travel companion, a famous makeup artist. When my sister started asking the makeup artist questions about the application of makeup and how best to cover up a few imperfections on her face, the makeup artist looked at my sisters’ face and immediately said, “Why did you point them out to me? I would have never noticed them if you hadn’t pointed them out. Never draw people’s attention to your flaws, only accentuate the areas you love.”
Talk about a life lesson when you least expect it?! How many of us point out our flaws, hoping to beat people to the punch. Let others know that we are aware of the areas we need to work on. But why? What does this do for us except accentuate the things we dislike and, as the makeup artist explained, draw others’ eyes immediately to our flaws.
This leads to the larger issue. Why are we so critical of what we see in the mirror? Why do we have to issue judgments, label things as imperfections, get frustrated by our own appearance? Why can’t we be more accepting and appreciative of the face that stares back at us? The face that has laughed and smiled, cried and comforted. Our scars and lines are maps of our journey, a life fully lived and deeply felt. We need to throw away our ideas of perfection and take a good long look in the mirror…and smile! This is the only life we’ve got and this is the only face/hair/eyes/body we’ve got so I say accentuate the positive and ignore the negative and live your life to the fullest…flaws and all!
On a side note: What I love about blogging and what I have learned from other extraordinary bloggers out there, is that by giving yourself a schedule to adhere to (a post/essay a day) forces you to find the questions, the life lessons, the pearls of wisdom in the common every day occurrences. You really begin looking for the bigger questions in the small details of life. You truly live the examined life and it makes everything that much sweeter. So thank you to all of the women who inspire me daily!
Thanks for the mention here – I’m honored to be named! I simply love this line: “Our scars and lines are maps of our journey, a life fully lived and deeply felt.” Oh, yes. I wrote about a book a year ago called the Embers that had a lovely line where a husband looks at his 60-plus wife and sees the marks of their life together on her body. And yet we dismiss all of those marks – in fact, fear them, try to hide them, erase them. Alas. I don’t have an answer, and I’m as guilty as the next woman of trying to stop the aging process. Such a thought-provoking post. I’m glad to have found you!