The essence of a woman

Taking time off to do some volunteering work has been amazing and challenging but I would do it all over again given the chance. Walked into the centre and it was like I never left, it was filled with familiar faces and some not so familiar and before I knew it I was sent off to work running workshops and doing what came so naturally connecting with my girls some of them older than me some younger but it didn't matter. Some younger girls caught my attention during recess as they twirled around pretending to be dancing at a ball and they were a vision of beauty. Their faces all lit up and flashed pink cheeks from all the laughing and dancing lost in a world of their own. Caught up in the moment I totally forgot I was conversing with two other girls who were taken by the view as well. One of them remarked that they would have loved to be pretty and to my horror the other said that she was cursed to have been born pretty.

Now my girls have had issues in their lives that would break any ones heart hearing their stories and we are working on rebuilding them but those comments got me thinking how women generally ache over the issue of beauty. Its true of every woman even those who might think are totally accomplished with self confidence. We ache to be beautiful, to believe we are beautiful and worry over keeping it if ever we can.

We sometimes beat ourselves up because we simply do not measure up. When the picture on the mirror doesn't match the cover of the magazine and we become consumed with our insecurities. Now the desire to be beautiful has caused many women untold grief(how many diets have you been on?) Countless tears have been shed and hearts broken in its pursuit. For others beauty has been shamed,used and abused. Some have learnt that possessing beauty can be dangerous. And yet- and this is just astounding- in spite of all the pain and distress that beauty has caused us as women the desire remains. But all these self help remedies never fill the gaping holes in our lives, they are never enough because sooner or later we find ourselves back in the same position of feeling unwanted, unseen, unsought, uncertain.

It doesn't stop at the outward beauty but more a desire to be captivating in the depths of who you are. Outward beauty would be hollow were it not for the beauty of the heart.

A dear friend once said to me that a woman was the Master's finishing touch, the crescendo, the crown of creation ( this was during one of my rants of how I wish sometimes I had been born male). Beauty is an essence that dwells within every woman, given to you by God.

Beauty is the most essential and yes, the most misunderstood of all feminine qualities. However its an essence that every woman carries from the moment of her creation. The only things standing in the way of our beauty are our doubts and fears, and the hiding and striving we fall to as a result.