In The Beginning… Part I

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.   Steve Jobs

 

In The Beginning… Part I

 

 

I was an only child, painfully shy, bullied.  For as long as I can remember, I wanted to be a writer; and maybe an artist on the side.  I took Business Administration instead.

For years I interpreted life as a series of problems and challenges to be fixed and solved. Now, as a mother, I am only too aware of the dangers children and adults face: poor self image and self esteem, bullying, drugs, STD’s, rape, kidnapping, pregnancy, addiction, broken homes and the list goes on.    I felt rather helpless, hopeless when I thought about it all.

Intervention number one was helpful at first – I severely curtailed my intake of daily news.  I focused on family and all the things being a mom, wife, daughter, aunt and friend involve.  It worked wonders, I felt hopeful.  But…there was this nagging, gnawing feeling that I was ignoring and avoiding a part of “reality”.  Alice Herz Sommer, a holocaust survivor said it perfectly,

I know about the bad things but I look only for the good things. I think about the good. That takes a lot of practice.

How would I achieve that balance?  How could I see the things that at least seem to be evil and not let them consume me?  What could I, one person, me, do to change anything, to be relevant?  There was a restlessness.  I knew I was supposed to do something, but what was “something”?  I waited. I wondered.  Then I found See Beautiful.

See Beautiful™ exists to empower girls and women to see the beauty they inherently possess and empower ALL people to see and create more beauty in the world. Pop culture would like us to think beauty exists in, or is defined by, reality t.v. shows, airbrushed models on magazine covers, or manikins in storefront windows. In an effort to capture some of the beauty that exists in each of us and all over the world, See Beautiful™ has started a movement.  ~ See Beautiful 

A movement.  It struck a chord; piqued my curiosity; brought out my inner cynic (that’s not hard to do); increased that restless feeling, it became an itch.  It begged to be scratched.

Intervention number 2 – start small.  See Beautiful challenged readers to see beautiful on a daily basis.  They made it seem so simple.  There had to be a catch.  Cynic.  Restless.  What did I have to lose? I started to pay attention to See Beautiful’s reminders, inspiring things like the post on May 30 2012,

I don’t think of all the misery but of the beauty that still remains. ~ Anne Frank.   Thank you for seeking and creating beautiful with us.

I followed kindness challenges they shared from Life Vest Inside – like paying for someone else in line.  Wow, it was so much fun!  

I began to realize:

• Little everyday things we do and say can have as much impact as the big things.
• Everyone and everything matters
• I really AM “that” person.
• I can see the bad, but I can still look to the good.

I had been admiring the See Beautiful bracelet in their online store, just my style.  Something made me wait… I didn’t want anything to besmirch my image of See Beautiful, I mean there’s always some catch. Cynic.

 Then July 12th, the FB post was

It’s a Sunday Funday! Tell us how you’re seeing beautiful and receive one of our eco-friendly, hand-pressed See Beautiful bracelets. The next 10 people to share receive a bracelet! We really love giving. 

I thought… Really?  Strangely enough, I posted even though I was number 12 or 13.  Somehow something just made me feel I should share my example even though I wouldn’t get a bracelet.  I got a response saying send us your address and we’ll send you a bracelet.  Speechless.  What’s the catch?  Cynic.   Sent email.  Received bracelet.  No catch.  No request for funds.  No subsequent junk mail.  No cynic.

Then through a few more serendipitous situations, See Beautiful honoured me with the opportunity to be the See Beautiful Woman of the Month and to write a piece about how I saw beautiful.  That piece was the catalyst to finally get up and do something instead of just sitting and thinking about it.  I am very grateful to See Beautiful for that.  Maybe I did know what I wanted to be from the very start after all.