When I was a little girl, I drove my parents and brother crazy with one question:  “Knock Knock?”  They would respond enthusiastically “Who’s There?” the first time, but their patience quickly waned after I continued to badger them 20 more times.  Each time, I’d come up with a slightly different (yet stupid) answer.  For some reason, they rarely got my humor.

Now pretend this is not a game.  If you asked me “Knock Knock?” and I answered with the question “Who’s There?” how would you reply?  Let me pose the question differently:  Who is really in there?  How do you see yourself?  Do you know who you are on the inside?

We spend an ENORMOUS amount of time taking care of our outer appearance (I call this our external beauty).  We are constantly buying new products and getting “services” to enhance our external beauty.  We get facials, color our hair, buy make-up and get pedicures.  And don’t forget the creams!  Hand cream, foot cream, eye cream, body cream, and face cream.   How do we possibly keep track of it all?

If you add up all the time you spend taking care of your external self, how would that compare to the time you spend on your internal self?   What are you doing to improve what really matters…your internal beauty?

What Makes a Woman Beautiful?

We’ve all met beautiful women.  Sometimes women are fortunate be blessed with physical beauty.  But to be truly beautiful, you have to be beautiful on the inside. We’ve all known women we call beautiful—not because of their facial structure or their figure.  They are beautiful because they exude confidence, contentment and beauty from within.   They accept themselves and LOVE themselves (yes, I said LOVE).  They are not constantly criticizing themselves or others.  They are beautiful.

My mom is the most beautiful woman I know.  She wouldn’t fall into the Beauty Queen category but she is beautiful to me.  She is short and has always carried extra weight around her middle—a true apple.  She is missing her left breast which is “no big deal” as she puts it since she survived her battle with cancer.  She’s never been one to look in the mirror to primp, let alone put moisturizer on.

Yet, she is beautiful.

Everyone who knows “Mama” will agree with me.  She is funny and sweet (but not sticky sweet).  She ornery as hell, makes jokes when she shouldn’t, and never takes herself too seriously.  She is also the first person to offer to help others in need.   Always.  She loves to laugh and play games.  She’s a great cook and enjoys making wonderful meals for friends and family.  She has the biggest heart of anyone I know—I am the luckiest daughter in the world.

The day after mom’s mastectomy, she told me she wanted to make a Key Lime Pie.  I told her I’d run to the store to get everything for the pie but she insisted on going with me.  Twelve hours after I got her home from the hospital, we were walking around Fresh Market buying key limes. The following day, she wanted to go out for dinner so my brother Scott and his wife Tania took us out to Fresco’s.  This picture is Mama 2 days after her surgery!  Unbelievable?  No, that’s just Mama.  We should all take lessons from her.

So, my questions to you are these:

  • What are you doing to improve your internal beauty?
  • How do you want to be remembered?  As a person who’s just beautiful on the outside or a person who’s beautiful on the inside?
  • Who is the most beautiful woman you know?

The one great opportunity we have to become more beautiful as we grow older is to become more beautiful on the inside.

Happy Mother’s Day to all you fantastic moms and to all of us who have (or sadly had) beautiful moms.  Please share your comments with us.  We are anxious to hear your stories.

Smile and Be Beautiful,

Molly