I was the girl that put hot rollers in her hair every day, teased the bangs to perfection, dug into my giant arsenal of Covergirl cosmetics and checked herself in the mirror three times before leaving the house. Sure, it was the 80's... but still. I couldn't help thinking that I'm glad my daughter feels confident enough to not need an hour and half, 8 ounces of Aquanet and a Guess bag to feel complete when she leaves the house. Sure, she has bad days and days when she thinks it's fun to dress up and do her make up. She likes to shop and paint her nails and watch youtube fashion blogs. But she doesn't need to do all that to feel like she belongs and I couldn't help but think there is a lesson in that.
Because we are enough.
We don't need to have a house that looks like it came out of the pages of a magazine. We don't need to prove that what we do every day (whether it's work at home or out in the world) is valuable. We don't need to have a big instagram following or awards attached to our name or lose 20 pounds to feel that we are enough. We don't.
It's not our wealth or our looks or for heaven's sake our figures that make us who we are, and the older I get the more I understand that. It's changing the ways I approach things in life. I am trying to worry less about pleasing everyone and instead I'm accepting that sometimes people just don't like you quite so much. I've learned that I can wear the same outfit 3 days in a row and it just doesn't matter, even if it's leggings and a sweatshirt. This week I bought a bright highlighter yellow dress that is definitely not "my" color but makes me unbelievable happy when I wear it because I think it spreads a little sunshine on these dreary Pacific Northwest days. And I'm making peace with my decision to ditch the scale and the dieting mentality.
I hope I can continue to foster that mentality in my daughter because she is enough. I am enough. We are all enough.
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