Embellishments

Occasionally I actually dress up, wear nice shoes, put on jewelry, or at least comb through my hair. I’ve never been big on “pretty.” It just wasn’t in my vocabulary. Good, yes. Useful, yes. Honest, kind…yes and yes. But pretty seemed overrated and silly. My thinking was that as long as a person’s clean and true to themselves, they’re the beautiful that God made them to be.

(365 Day 96 Photo)

Why these musings on my appearance?
I sent my daughter off to her first Prom tonight and thought how well she handled her nervousness and awkwardness at being so fixed up and in the spotlight.
Needless to say, I never did the Prom thing.

(feeling “forties” in my thirties, 365 day 92 Photo)

She chose a real classically pretty dress with low heels and a simple jewel necklace. She has good taste. But she also has someone to coach her through it, even if that someone shleps around in sneakers and ratty jeans most of the time.

I had my grandmother and only the memory of my beautiful, gentle mother to teach me what beauty was when I was her age. So, maybe I found my way to being comfortable with beauty on the outside a little more slowly. I did adjust to it, then re-adjusted in my mid thirties when my confidence was tested again.
In fact, the whole 365 thing is a challenge to me for this very reason. I’ve found many more ways to look at myself than that quick glance in the bathroom mirror accompanied by, “ugh.”
I always knew there was beauty in faded t shirts and lazy hair. In motherhood, or noticing how someone’s feeling, or just being who I was made to be.
But I have mellowed and decided if everyone can be pretty, then it’s okay to want to look pretty. (I say this, then realize my head is cut out of all of these pics.)

(hoodie, 365 Day 59 Photo)

So, I let myself be pretty too. Just like I am. But once in a while, it is nice to do something extra, even if it’s just a pair of earrings under a hoodie to feel extra pretty.