We see beauty all around us and honor it every day through our lens.  Why then do we find it difficult to turn that lens on our selves?  We are worthy of that same celebration.  We ARE beautiful.  This year I decided to challenge my self image and step out from behind my camera and take a few shots of me.  52 to be exact.  It has not been easy.  I feel awkward and strange, and down right uncomfortable.  I really find I struggle with full shots of myself, so instead i tend focus on pieces; my lashes, a single eye, a grin.  Every once in a while magic happens. I capture a piece of me that makes my spirit smile, fills me with a bit of confidence, and keeps me on this journey of self.  Each frame supplying me an opportunity for inspection and self acceptance, self love.  I have wrinkles, oh yes and gray hairs, proof I have lived 37 years on this earth.  Various lines from smiling, and laughing, and of course crying.  Dimples that grace my baby pictures, still evident today.  My father's crow's feet, now my own.  Scars from wounds long healed.  Freckles from beloved summers spent in the sun.  One lone chicken pock mark on my face from that year I turned 12 and got so sick with them on my birthday.  "Perfectly imperfect" I like to say.  Lived in.  Real.  True.  Just me, in all my flawed glory.  The body my mother once carried in her own; the face my children smile freely at each morning; the lips my husband kisses; that same face that looks back at me each morning in the mirror as I brush my teeth, bedhead and all. Perfectly imperfect.  

So today, turn your camera on yourself.  Show us proof of your life.  You are safe here, flaws and all.  Embrace the beauty that is you.  It is scary, I know how you feel.  Trust me.  You can do it.  Perhaps start small and pick a little piece of you.  Go ahead!  Who knows, you may just be surprised by what you see. Inspired even.     

Because guess what?  You ARE beautiful.