You are Beautiful Inside and Out

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I heard this story the other day about a woman whose parents had selected an ugly serpent as her mate. Because she was not happy with her parent’s choice she walked far and long to the wisest woman in the village to ask her what she should do about her predicament.

The wise woman told her to wear 10 dresses on her wedding day and before she laid down that night with the serpent, to take one dress off, and then ask the serpent to shed one of his skins. She was to do this until she had taken off all 10 dresses and he had shed all 10 skins and then after the 10^th skin had been shed, she was to embrace him.

And so she went home with the serpent. Eager to see her prince, the woman took off one of her dresses and asked her husband to shed one of his skins. He did as she said. She took off another dress and asked him again to shed one of his skins and he did. This went on until 9 of her dresses had been removed and 9 of his skins had been shed. He had one more skin to go and the woman, in anticipation of her reward, removed her tenth dress, but to her surprise when her husband shed his 10^th skin, he was still an ugly serpent.

The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched, they must be felt with the heart” ~ Helen Keller

The woman was so disappointed. How could this be; she cried! 10 skins and he is still an ugly serpent! She cried and cried and cried. And while she cried her husband held her and wiped away her tears. So touched by his act of loving kindness, the woman turned towards her husband and embraced him. It was then that he turned into a beautiful prince. Although this is a fairy tale, there is wisdom in it as there is in all fairy tales. The true beauty of someone lies beneath the surface.

“People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.” ~Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Now let’s take a real life example.

My friend Robert has been a relationship with the same woman for the past six years. He loves everything about her except for the excess skin around her stomach due to her dramatic weight loss. It bothered him so much that it was creating distance in his relationship with her. And the thing is, he did not want it to bother him, but didn’t know how to get past it. I said to him “what if something happened to you and you became disfigured in some way, would you want how she felt about you to change. He answered no. I said “that’s how you have to look at it.”

Even if you met someone who looked “perfect” at the time that you met them, something could always happen and their looks could change too. Sometimes we get too caught up in what a person looks like. And I know that its not hard not to. Every time I turn on the television I see at least one commercial marketing some product that promises to reduce puffy eyes, eliminate cellulite, remove fine lines and wrinkles, get buns of steel or six-pack abs. Wrinkles, fine lines, sagging, dragging are not things to run away from, they are a part of getting older. It is the natural progression life.

Some people, no matter how old they get, never lose their beauty – they merely move it from their faces into their hearts. -Martin Buxbaum

And although your physical form will change and no longer meet society’s narrow definition of beauty, your inner beauty will continue shine if you let it. Some things get better with age and people are one of them. For the most part, as we get older, we lose the angst, awkwardness, confusion and general of growing up. We gain a deep appreciation for life and a knowing of what is really important.

There is beauty in everyone. You are beautiful because you were born.

Photo Credit: dennoir

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Tagged as: Spirituality