Beautiful

Yesterday I had tea with one of my most important people in my life.
I was thinking on the way home how I always learn from him.
ALWAYS.
If it's simply hanging out and laughing, I learn to live for each moment.
If it's discussing something major, I learn to breath in and always know that someone cares about me.
If it's not even talking, but knowing that we are in the same place together, I learn even my very presence matters and is noticed.

We talked yesterday about the idea of beauty. About how people don't hear that they are beautiful, enough.
About how the word itself hast lost its meaning because of the superficial connotations society has placed on it.

It's funny because there have been few times in my life when I have felt genuinely beautiful.
My grandpa, used to always make me feel like I was the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen. I still remember, when he was in the hospital and couldn't even speak, he would communicate with his eyes. I walked in one day with a smile on my face, so excited to see him. The second he saw me, his eyes lit up and a smile spread across his face as he reached his hand up to grab my hand.
This to me, was the look of beauty.

Another time,
I volunteered at the FRWY last year. For whatever reason, I never thought about my physical appearance when I was working there. I remember one day, a lady came in and ordered a tea, as I took her order I smiled at her politely. She looked at me for a long time, almost uncomfortably long, and finally said: "You have a face that lights up an entire room, I hope in my lifetime I see many more smiles like yours."
I felt like I was on top of the world. I'm pretty sure I went to sleep that night with hurting cheeks because I couldn't stop smiling after that.

There is nothing more perfect, nothing more complete, then being told by someone who cares about you that you are beautiful. There is nothing like looking someone in the eyes and sharing with them that they are spectacular.

A lot of times in feminist theory, there's the idea of reclaiming a word or phrase. I think it's about time to reclaim Beauty. I think it's about time that we start to see the beauty that rests within everyone. Maybe then, we can begin to see the beauty that lies within each of us.
Until then, thank you for seeing the beauty in me.
Know that I think the very same of you.

You are BEAUTIFUL.