{self portrait}
Do you know how beautiful you are?
Standing there.
Sitting there.
Waiting there.
Breathing there.
Do you know how beautiful you are?
Pumping gas.
Feeding your children.
Sitting in your cubicle.
Loading the dishwasher.
Running on the treadmill.
Standing in line at the grocery store.
Do you know how beautiful you are?
Wearing sweat pants.
No make-up.
Jeans two sizes too small (or too big).
Spanx hidden beneath your clingy dress.
Pajamas (because you are just running an errand and who will see you?)
Do you know how beautiful you are?
With laugh lines that are forming around your mouth.
Gray hairs sprinkled around your temples.
Ten (or 20 or 50) pounds you’ve been wanting to lose.
Hair growing too much in some places and not enough in others.
Sags and bags and lines and creases.
Pimples and dimples and ripples and rolls.
Do you know how beautiful you are?
As the weight of the unknown rests between your ears.
What should I cook for dinner?
Will I make it to my appointment on time?
How will I pay the phone bill this month?
Will I ever have time for me?
What would happen if I lost my job?
What would happen if I quit my job?
When will I be happy?
How will I be happy?
What will make me happy?
Do you know how beautiful you are?
With all of your hopes.
Joy.
Anxiety.
Laughter.
Tears.
Dreams.
Fears.
Do you know how beautiful you are?
When across the room.
Behind you in line.
Next to you on the elevator.
Is a woman who sees you.
Because she is you.
She sees you and catches her breath
Because she sees who you are
beneath
all
of
it.
She is wondering if you know how beautiful you are
And is wishing she had her camera with her so that she could show you.
show hide 27 comments
that is a beautiful post. thanks for sharing.
Oh Darrah – this is so lovely!
ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS!!!! thanks so much this was ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS!!!!
Tears now.
Beautiful.
Just a few minutes ago a gentleman was in my office and playfully "hitting on me" and I thought what an idiot. I am 48&3/4 years old, 5'2", 145-150 lbs. I used to be cute but now I don't recognize the fat old lady in the photo's my kids take of me. This has given me pause (and tears) to try to reconcider how I look at myself. How others might see me. How fortunate I am to actually have a face and arms and legs that work…THANK YOU…do know how beautiful YOU are…with love and light…Katherine.
Lovely!
♥♥♥ Love this!
Thanks for the beautiful poem! I love your photo, too! Is that a self-portrait or was there someone else behind the camera?
brilliant. thank you for such kind and generous words.
what a lovely reminder. I so often see beauty in the faces of others but miss it in the tired, graying pudgy face that looks back me from the mirror. Thank you.
Thank you for all of the lovely comments. Can we all agree to lighten up on ourselves a little?
Brigitte: the photo is a self portrait, taken of me, by me!
I think I need to frame this and read it every day. So beautiful. Thank you.
I second Maile. I need to come back here every day and read this.
thank you. you are beautiful and this poem is beautiful. i needed this today especially. and it made my cry … in a good way.
xo
Lovely! Hope you can show lots and lots of those women how beautiful they are with your camera.
Absolutely deliciously honestly beautiful. Thank you.
wow! amazing words! i can so relate!!!
wow.
wow.
wow.
thank you.
Do you know how beautiful YOU are Darrah, savvy photographer and kind spirit that you are
You bring joy and delight to all of us.
Many hugs! xoxo
And thanks for this. Your post makes me feel beautiful.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I am both of these women. All the time. And I am beautiful. And so are you. I feel blessed to have read this today. Love to you.
That is what we all need to read in the morning, afternoon and as we're getting ready for bed.
i love this SO. MUCH. i often look at all of the women bustling around me, and wish i could tell them how beautiful they are. perhaps it is being a photographer, a writer, and a woman who often loses sight of her own intrinsic beauty that causes me to really SEE them. once upon a time a stranger on the street stopped her car to tell me i looked beautiful, and it rocked my world: http://somethingglorious.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2010-02-26T18%3A05%3A00-05%3A00 now i try to reciprocate whenever i am able (and brave!)…
That was beautiful. Much needed on a tough day, when I am struggling to get out of my pajamas! Thank you.
Thank you with all my heart.
wow breathtaking and thank you i needed this….
I thank you from the bottom of my heart, with tears in my eyes. Beautiful.
I remember being more beautiful – a different beautiful! An empty beautiful! But now I am more. At 65.
"Back at you, sweetie!" – Ellen D.
I'm so glad you posted this again! A friend of mine posted a link to your poem on Facebook, so long ago now, and I've been following you ever since! Thank you for all the inspiration — your blog introduced to be the blogsphere, encouraged me to try my hand at photography, and even prompted me to start my own blog
All because of these lovely words . . . I'm truly grateful!