Your Ordinary Beauty

Most people don't think of themselves as beautiful.  We don't think of ourselves at all, really.  We just get up, splash water on our faces, dress, pull our hair back, throw our clothes on--whether the uniform of mindless choice is yoga pants or your everyday sari.  There's no thought in it; we simply prepare for our day and show up as best we can...blind to our beauty, unconscious of how extraordinary it is to play our everyday roles.

If she came to your kitchen, to your office, she would marvel at how you do your work so seamlessly.  Your rhythm, your routine would fascinate.  She would think the simple things you do are amazing, and if you gave her a camera, she'd point and shoot at all of it, wondering at the miracle that you have so many machines to help you do your every day work.  You'd blush and say "It's nothing," except that it isn't.  How many nights do you put your head to the pillow and wonder how the world keeps spinning, the load you carry is so much to bear?

If you went to her kitchen, to her office, you would be breathless at how she does her work with no tools, no resources, except the skill in her able hands and her hard won knowledge.  You'd see how she holds the babies right after they're born and puts them to the mother's breast.  You'd remember your own mother and your own births and your own infants, and how the doula did everything you needed when everyone else didn't have a clue.  You'd try to express your admiration, but she'd shake her head, the same way you shake yours.  

It's nothing.  It's just what I do.

All over the world, women are giving children baths, helping their sisters and mothers, doing their work--much of it mundane and yet still so much so far beyond ordinary.  We are doing it in our ordinary ways, unaware of our beauty.  Not seeing really how our pain and our joy shines, in every single dedicated second.

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Show us your extraordinary beauty today.  Your uniform, your chores.  The simple, expected thing that you do everyday that has hidden in its history a certain kind of magic, a not-yet-celebrated charm.  Self-portraits of all kinds--whether it be of your coffee maker or your yoga pants--completely and totally welcome.

Comments

[Deb]

What a beautiful post! I don't have a portrait to show you yet, but I'll work on it! :)

[Ana Eugenio]

here is one challenge that has a lot to do with self-esteem. I hate being fat but I don't think I'm ugly. so I've to get use to myself the way I am now. I only got fat because of the medication I've to take. would love to know what do you see?

http://www.anasofiaeugenio.com/2011/08/selfie-saturdays-week-27.html

[Marcie]

Jen - this is the most beautiful post. Everything you say - so true..and said with such love.

Don't have a visual self-'portrait' to offer today..only some self-'reflections' in words:
http://www.marciescudderphotography.com/home/2011/8/29/reflections.html

[epad]

You'd see how she holds the babies right after they're born and puts them to the mother's breast. from http://www.chinabring.ru

[Jessie]

I love your post! A few online friends and I are doing a 52 week self portrait project. Many of my photos are the boring day to day you speak of. That is a stunning shot of a beautiful woman!
Here's me:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11842226@N06/sets/72157625599443699/

[Christineellen]

What a lovely post!

[Kiley]

I just started a self-portrait exercise/series today. Here's the first shot.
http://www.gogovivi.com/2011/08/self.html

[Susan @WhyMommy]

Nice post!

May I comment to Ana Eugenia above? Weight gain from meds feels awful - it changes your body when you least like it anyway. I have it too. All I can do is remember that it is THIS body keeping me alive, these arms that let my heart hug my children, these legs that carry me to their bedside when they cry, and this belly on which they rest their weary heads.

All bodies are beautiful, even when we hardly recognize them as our own anymore.

Wishing you peace.
Susan

[The Other Laura]

Finishing up the grocery list: http://www.flickr.com/photos/laurahealy/6096706090/in/photostream/

[Ricardo Sárraga-Martínez]

powerful image, beautiful and strong. reminds me of my mother.

[WorthIt!]

What a moving post! I'm not well practiced at self portraits. In fact, I tend to avoid them to concentrate on what I see around me. In this case, I saw my reflection.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/52055227@N07/6097105268/in/photostream

[Misty]

I've been pregnant or nursing for most of the last 11 years so this is pretty normal to me but it still makes me swoon every time. This is baby #5.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/photobug_mda/6096992101/

[Libertad Leal]

What a beautiful post and image. It's so true, what you speak of. It's easy to think that everyday moments and mundane tasks don't matter. We all just do what we have to do. But they matter and are seldom photographed and therefore forgotten. This is why I have been working on a self portrait project titled Everyday Mother... I don't want to forget.

These self portraits are hard to take but they are the work I am most proud of. I hope you like it. Here is what I have so far:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/libertadleal/sets/72157625114491446/

[ТЕНЬ М11]

What a moving post! I'm not well practiced at self portraits. In fact, I tend to avoid them to concentrate on what I see around me. In this case, I saw my reflection.

[brigid]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ridethewavesoflife/2698852168/in/photostream

[Ingrid]

I've been working as a midwife for over twenty years now, in three different countries, and have brought many many babies into this world. I still love my job as every shift is unpredictable and you get to meet so many interesting people. But this post made me realise how few pictures I have of myself at work! This one was sent to me by a proud new parent a few years ago. I had to ransack my hard-drives to find it! I am going to work tonight and will definitely take my camera in and get some photos of myself and of my colleagues at work. Thank you for a beautiful post!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/indigo2087/6098555485/in/photostream

[Christian]

I love this photo so much. Your words are beautiful! I don't have any self portraits either. I think I'll try some now.....

[heredress]

everyone is the same as them, we should find ourselves.

Good luck to all

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