December 8 – Beautifully Different.
Think about what makes you different and what you do that lights people up. Reflect on all the things that make you different – you’ll find they’re what make you beautiful.
(Author: Karen Walrond)
This is the prompt I could have most easily anticipated . . . and yet,
it is totally throwing me off.
I was on Chookooloonk’s The Beauty of Different blog back in August. So, I have been thinking about different-beauty for awhile. But when I read this prompt, half of my brain froze and the other half went crazy over-thinking the matter and coming to no useful conclusion.
After a day of thinking (and leaving yesterday’s blog space in memory of John Lennon), I have decided that it’s the potential relationship between what makes us different and what makes us interesting to others that has my brain sprinting. And it’s just the “what do you that lights people up” that has me frozen.
Recently, Karen said this on the blog,
“Practicing our own ways of self-expression and creativity is how we become confident and secure in our Different. It is one path to owning our beauty.”
I was going to admit that I never really had a problem with my differences from others. And this statement helps me realize why I may have been able to do that. Sure, I struggled with other kids and hated going to school, but I never blamed my differences for that. Instead I went home and, well, reveled in them! And maybe it was the constant encouragement I received to express myself.
Everyone is different, and it surely is that which makes us most beautiful.
I have a list of 100 things about me in my bio. Perhaps there are people who will share a number of those items . . . but those giant lists are like genetic code. And no where else is such a list of memories and interests and opinions replicated in precisely the same way. It makes me fascinated in others.
And now that I think back, there are even some times when my quirks, or the sheer bizarreness of what makes me me, has delighted others.
magic lantern arts 