i just stumbled across this piece that i wrote a couple of years ago. and realized that my 5th grade teacher was mrs. clover and mrs. wolfe was my third grade teacher. and then i remembered that 7 x 8 was the hardest "times" on the multiplication table for me. that's probably the only one i still know! since i found it again and never really published it, here it is:
a few days ago i read the article linked above and all of the
beautiful comments left there, and it really affected me and reminded me
of something that i wanted to share with all of you. i wanted to share
it so much that i stayed up late last night writing this. (i am a dork
and i like that about myself :)
when i was in the fifth grade, a classmate's mother died. when the girl came back to school, our teacher, mrs. wolfe, stood at the blackboard and welcomed the girl, nancy, back to class and explained to the rest of us that nancy's mother had passed away. mrs. wolfe went on to say that nancy's mother was a kind, beautiful lady whose loss would be felt by her family and our community. of course, i felt very sorry for nancy. but i thought it odd that mrs. wolfe, who i thought was beautiful (she was probably all of 25 at the time!), said that nancy's mom was beautiful. i had seen nancy's mom at school. she was one of the homeroom moms our third grade year. i didn't think nancy's mom was beautiful. or even pretty, in fact. nancy's mom had red hair and freckles, wore horn-rimmed glasses, had old-fashioned bouffanty hair and a big mole on her cheek. not like the tiny dark ones that my mom and i are covered with, but one that stuck up from her cheek almost like a wart. i didn't think that she was beautiful at all. farrah fawcett and cher were beautiful. i remember that my dad thought catherine deneuve was beautiful. but nancy's mom? certainly very nice, but not beautiful.
and now, some thirty-odd years later, this is what i've learned.
beauty
is not found in the features of your face or how those features fit
together. it is not found in the color of your skin or your eyes or
your hair. while the female form is a work of art, beauty is not found
in your figure; it is not measured by your weight or height. beauty is
not in the clothes that you wear or how skillfully you apply your
makeup. beauty is not the jewelry you put on or the purse that you
carry on your arm.
beauty
is in your smile and in your heart, in the words you say and how you
say them. it's in the way you treat people, those you love and those
you don't know. beauty is in how you carry yourself, head up and
shoulders back, ready to face whatever lies in your path. beauty is in
your spirit; it is beautiful to wake up in the morning with a sense of
gratitude that you've been given another day, another chance to get it
right (as ben harper says). beauty is in our scars and wounds and
disappointments and most especially in the way that we overcome them and
embrace them, for they strengthen us.
i
borrowed the following comment from jenny's article because it jumped
off the page at me, almost as if it wanted me to read it and remember
it.
"I'm
beautiful because nowhere else in the world does there exist the
peculiar and particular combination of ideas, talents, desires,
weirdnesses, snark, failures, successes, hopes, poofy hair, and 'fun
size'-edness that exists in me. I'm one of a kind, and rarity is
beautiful."
so, to all of you women that i love, remember - you are SMART. and DIFFERENT. and STRONG. and LOVING. and PROUD. and KIND. and CAPABLE. and BEAUTIFUL. and so was nancy's mom.
