A question was asked on facebook the other day by one of my very best friends: "what do you all think about selfies?" She is one of the most gorgeous people I know, inside & out. Her "selfies" always radiate such confidence & joy flowing right out of the photograph. Since she lives far away from me, I am always happy to see her beautiful face on my screen. But it got me thinking. What do I think about selfies? And I had a pretty strong opinion that I shared on her facebook post that I will elaborate on below.
I have been seeing so many remarks on social media about selfies and the people that hate them. They tend to view those who post selfies to be narcisstic, selfish human beings. But I actually think of it a little different. My question to those haters: why are you not able to look at another human being, created by God, and celebrate their beauty? And I can hear the haters now, well so+so posts a photo everyday in a bikini or at the gym with their abs glowing in the light. Ok, those are not the selfies I am talking about. I am talking about the regular, "I am feeling beautiful today, there is some good light so I am going to take a photo of myself" selfie. Friends!! I have got a mission for you! CELEBRATE THE BEAUTY OF THOSE AROUND YOU!!!! But not only that: CELEBRATE THE BEAUTY OF YOU!!!!! I am guessing that if you are a hater of selfies (or a recovering hater of selfies) then you might have a little trouble not only celebrating the beauty of a friend but also of yourself. You are beautiful. Right where you are. Not when you lose another 10 pounds or finally get those grays covered. You.Are.Beautiful.
I was so inspired by my friend, Amber Lehman, as she told me why she wanted the below photograph. She had been inspired by another mutual friend, Ruthie, and the incredibly, gorgeous photographs of her mother when she was younger. Amber wanted her children and grandchildren to see the beauty of her youth. Now that is CELEBRATION friends!
Another inspiration behind this idea was the photograph below that I found of my husbands grandmother and her twin sister when they were in their 20's. It captured them in their beauty of youth (though she is still incredibly beautiful and still has blonde hair at 90!) . It made me think, why we, as women, don't take the time to really capture beautiful images of our self? To give ourselves permission to live in the very essence of our beauty. Our children and grandchildren will cherish these images for generations. Nothing seems too selfish or narcissistic about that.
This is the year that I want myself, along with all of you to let down our fear and truly honor the beauty in ourselves along with the beauty we see in others. So, take those selfies! Like those selfies! And hire me to take beautiful photographs of you, wherever you are in life.