Beautiful Beyond Beauty

A friend in Monterrico Guatemala illuminated me when he spoke the words “beautiful things are fragile” as I complained about my backpack zipper having snagged my favorite handmade Guatemalan shirt, unraveling the intricate weaving. Beautiful things are fragile. As women we spend immeasurable time fretting about being beautiful. Am I skinny enough? Pretty enough? How do I look in this? If I spend money on this thing, will it make me more attractive? Do I look fat in this pic? Am I smiling so hard my wrinkles appear deepened? Don’t post this, you’ll look like a crazy cat lady. Beautiful things are fragile. But age and the passing of time have caused me to be anything but fragile. I am wiser and smarter now than ever before. Stronger. Braver. Experienced. Qualified. I have stories for days about adventures taken, mountain peaks and volcanos bagged, road trips, Alaskan living adventures. I have more skills and talents than I ever dreamed possible. I’ve lived in countless places. traveled to destinations my family still can’t place on a map. existed as a myriad of versions of myself that when I read books and have dreams, I don’t marvel in wonder, I recall back personal memories that are similar, self owned, and find best selling stories relatable. Right now. A little fat (for me). Leaning into being crazy cat lady. Stripped of all titles, including intrepid world traveler due to Coronavirus. I can be anything. But the one thing I’m not worried about being ever again, is beautiful. Because beautiful things are fragile and I’ve grown too strong to ever want to be that boring and shallow of a woman again and my hunger spans far beyond food. I hunger for a deep, well lived life free of lamenting about such a temporary and biased condition as beauty. I hope that post this era, we can all fret about this a lot less and focus more on just being real and true to ourselves, which is beautiful in itself. Side note: she 😺 loves the water as much as I do. I am a crazy cat lady and no longer care. it’s ok to fluctuate in weight, It has no bearing on your personal value. AND, there are so many more beautiful things to strive to be in this world as women, than “beautiful”