for beauty

Four years after my trip to Ireland, my brother just sent me the pictures he took and I couldn't believe how young (and pasty white) I looked! It's amazing how getting married and becoming a mother has changed my appearance. Sometimes I feel like it's for the better but mostly I feel much worse.

at the Irish Sea - 2006.

My brother-in-law, Mark, called me on Sunday to give me my birthday phone call a week late (he was on a fishing trip in Alaska - a likely story). His phone calls are a birthday tradition where he usually calls me in a creepy, molester voice and asks me very personal questions while I crack up at that year's impersonation. But this year he was in serious mood and he asked me, "Do you feel old?". I had to answer yes. I know that in the grand scheme of things I am young but this last year has done a number on my body. I knew that childbirth produced some saggy results but I guess I didn't visualize how that sagginess would affect my body . . . and now I know.

I think about my mom and how beautiful she is. When I was a teenager my mother was quite a bit older than most of my friend's moms but I felt like her beauty surpassed everyone else and I still do. I always said that if I looked half as great as my mother at half her age, I'd be doing pretty well for myself. She has had eleven children and has nearly 40 grandchildren and so much of her beauty stems from her selflessness, her kindness, her service and her unconditional love (is it Mother's Day?). So I guess it's obvious that the more I emulate my mother's character the more I increase my chances of producing some pretty beautiful results.

I've always thought my mom looked like a combination of Jackie Kennedy and Audrey Hepburn so it's appropriate that I share this quote.

"For attractive lips, speak words of kindness, For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people. For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry. For beautiful hair, let a child run their fingers through it once a day. For poise, walk with the knowledge that you never walk alone. People, more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed. Remember, if you ever need a helping hand you will find one at the end of each of your arms. As you grow older you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself and the other for helping others." Audrey Hepburn