I AM BEAUTIFUL

I look at my hands and see that they are worn and scarred from many years of working, nurturing, healing and loving and they are beautiful.

I notice my back isn't as straight as it once was from carrying children and the burdens of those I love and it is beautiful.

I see the wrinkles and laugh lines on my face, they are a badge of a life lived with passion and they are beautiful.

I see my breasts tired from nourishing babies and gravity taking it's toll and they are beautiful.

I look at my waist now thickened to signal my time of creating new life has past and it is beautiful.

I look at my belly which is soft and round from too much nourishment of my body and not enough of my spirit and it is beautiful

I notice my hips which have widened so that I could better balance being a wife, mother, sister, friend, and woman, and they are beautiful.

I see the spindly veins in my legs that look like road maps of all of the places they have carried me and they are beautiful.

I look at my feet which are callused from walking me through a rich, delicious life and they are beautiful.

My body tells my story.  It is a work of art that is not yet complete and it is beautiful.

--Paisley Jayne

painting by Miranda Famport