Fashion Fridays: What It’s Really About

I love writing Fashion Fridays.

Not because I have a degree or am uber-fashionable, but I love color and texture and I think it’s wonderful to look and feel your best.

But today, instead of a Steal this Look or a thorny fashion problem solved, I thought I’d write a little about what true beauty is.  Especially after reading back to back posts this week from Ann Voskamp and Lisa Jo Baker.

I really focused on this critical message after reading, and re-reading, Ann’s post entitled, Dear Women & Daughters: When You’re Tired of Media Voices Telling You What Beauty Is…  The entire post is beautifully crafted, but these words in particular struck a chord:

For a beautiful countenance — count blessings.
For beautiful lips — only speak words that make souls stronger.
To carry yourself with poise — carry each other’s burden.
For the most beautiful shape — simply live with one hand receiving all as gift, and other hand giving away the gifts.

Because that’s it.  That’s the heart of beauty.  Everything else is fun, but it’s just icing.  Icing we can’t get too caught up in.  The labels or the sizes or the latest trends.  The cake, well the cake is what your heart wears.

Just after reading those words, I read Lisa Jo’s post entitled You Are More Than Your Swimsuit.  Since I’m a mom who still needs to drop 25 pounds and lives in our backyard pool with the kids all summer long, she had me at the title.  But then she kept going, and with every story she wrote a piece of my own story and freed me of the weight of guilt and insecurity I carry in this softened post-triplets body:

These bodies that tell the story of miracle and wonder and wink from wide hips and wrinkled steps at the tiny life guards who don’t know yet that living life unguarded in the wide open expanse of opening your life up to others is the best way to be beautiful. They will grow into it. They will earn their own scars.  And we will be there modeling what brave looks like for them. Every step of the way into the deep end of the pool with miniature daughters clinging to our necks. Or with other wrinkled sisters who still swim on fearless. With joy off the diving board and loud laughter trying to out race our sons.  Let’s not hide this summer.  Let’s spend it all…down to the very last delicious drops of summer – because you are created for more. Much more than your swimsuit.

I will keep writing Fashion Fridays.  Because it’s fun and life is about fun too.  But I don’t ever want it to get lost that we have been created for so much more.  We come in different shapes and sizes and colors and ages.  And that weaves together the most fashionable tapestry of all.  {===> Click To Tweet}