Tell Us About…Beauty

Welcome

This month our Tell Us About prompt is Marsha’s choice of: Beauty.

In some ways I feel like I’ve cheated, because I’ve asked some special women in my life for their ideas of what beauty is, rather than blather on about my own views of beauty. Some of these women I’ve met in person, some are online friends (via our blogs) – but the one thing they all have in common is they’re all beautiful women, inside and out!

Beautiful isn’t a physical appearance. Beauty is an energy.

Jade Drew

Jade

Jade Drew is the passionate owner/operator of Studio Drew, a busy wife and mother of 5 and my personal trainer (along with all the other women she mentors).

Despite having known her for less than 12 months, she has become a special person in my life. She’s one of those lovely souls, beautiful inside and out – supportive, caring and inspiring! I’m so glad I made contact last year and I’ve definitely made great leaps in terms of my strength under her care. Even though I’m one of the ‘older’ women in the Studio, I always feel included and often forget my real age as I work out alongside young mothers.

I asked for Jade’s thoughts on Beauty, and as you’ll see, she’s nailed it!!

The more I reflect on it, the more I’m drawn to the timeless saying, ‘Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.’ But is that saying correct? Or is it that beauty is in the eye of our inner selves? I believe so.

Beauty is unique; it something that shines from our inner essence into our physical appearance. In a world filled with ever-shifting societal standards, the pursuit of meeting these expectations can feel overwhelming. Will we ever truly conform to society’s idea of beauty? Or just constantly chasing the expectations of what society said beauty is? However, I’ve come to realise that true beauty transcends these external pressures. It lies in accepting and loving ourselves for who we are at our core.

Beautiful isn’t a physical appearance, Beauty is an energy When we learn to embrace our authentic selves and learn true self-love, we begin to understand what true beauty is. It’s about acceptance and nurturing the beauty of the beautiful souls we are. Working with women daily, I feel society has stolen our belief in beauty. I’m so lucky to be surrounded by beauty every day. If I had one wish, I would ask that women start to see the real beauty within themselves rather than trying to meet unrealistic societal expectations.

Kelly

Kelly and I have known each other for about 20 years, as Kelly and her husband Dave worked with me at Mannus Correctional Centre for many years – in completely different roles to mine but it didn’t interfere with our friendship. We have lots of similar interests, cycling, walking, travel, fitness and our biggest adventure was training and walking part of the Kokoda Track together in 2008. Kelly still works full-time but I manage to catchup with her at Studio Drew or in town from time-to time.

Kelly is a gorgeous midlife woman, caring, inspiring, fun and beautiful in so many ways. Her words explain what Beauty means to her:

Beauty to me is a whole package not a look. Beauty is something that can take your breath away, not by the sight of something but how it makes you feel, if you are kind and have a good heart you are indeed beautiful, if you look at a view and think “wow”, it is a thing of beauty. When I was young I always believed that beauty was a stunning model in the magazines but as I get older it is definitely so much more.

Jo

Jo is one of my best blogging buddies, you can read her work at And Anyways… She’s an accomplished author, cook, traveller, sunrise chaser, walker and the type of beautiful friend everyone needs in their life. Head to her author site here Joanne Tracey and check out her fabulous books – you won’t be disappointed. You can tell Jo is a writer by her words below.

Someone wise once said that everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it. It was probably Confucius, and I could probably Google it, but I can’t be faffed. There’s another one about how beauty is in the eye of the beholder and yet another about how beauty can be fleeting and there one day but not the next.

All of these are true. I’d add another about how one person sees weeds while another sees wildflowers – because they’re looking for either wildflowers or weeds. If you’re looking for imperfection, that’s what you see; but if you’re looking for magic, you’ll find it in the mundane. It’s easy to see the weeds when it’s raining, and you know you must pull them out so the things you want to grow can grow. Another day, though, when the sun is shining, the birds are chirping, the sky is blue, and the temperature is perfect, you notice just how many shades of pink and lilac are in that lantana flower, and you pull out your phone and capture a pic of it.

Because it’s beautiful. Because right at that minute, it’s a wildflower, and tomorrow, it can be a weed again. That’s the thing about beauty: if you look for it, like love, it really is all around.

Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.

Confucius

Denyse

Denyse is a blogger I’ve been following for quite a few years now, through her cancer treatment and beyond. She’s a retired Principal and we both have Education in common, amongst other things!! Denyse is now on Substack as Denyse Whelan Writes Here and is one of the most self-aware people I’ve ever met. We haven’t met in person yet but we plan to one day! She has loads of experience and is always keen to share her knowledge in a caring and thoughtful manner.

In her words: Denyse Whelan Writes Here is where I share my words & photos about my life, retirement, ageing, education, mindfulness, journalling, and art. Occasionally I may share about my experience as an oral cancer patient who is now well.

Beauty is: using my five senses

Seeing: Smiles of delight from a baby, especially one who is a grandchild

Feeling: A smooth surface of a pebble found on the beach where I have walked in the water

Smelling: A waft of smell of freshly mown grass and being able to tread barefoot across it later 

Hearing: The sound of a favourite tune played by my husband on his piano

Tasting:  a warm muffin fresh from the oven, with lashings of butter

Min

Min is a blogger at Write of the Middle and has been going through ‘life’ in recent months. She’s a lovely empathic midlife woman and I always enjoy reading her posts. Here are Min’s thoughts:

When you look up the definition of beauty it says “a combination of qualities, such as shape, colour, or form, that pleases the aesthetic senses, especially the sight”. I find that to be a very shallow definition of beauty. Over the years I have learnt that while someone might be aesthetically beautiful, if they don’t also possess ‘inner beauty’ then the outer beauty fades away. On the contrary, someone who doesn’t match society’s expectations of aesthetically pleasing outer beauty may possess oodles of inner beauty and thus become truly beautiful to all that know him or her.

True beauty is a person who has a beautiful heart. You don’t need to ‘see’ the heart to know it. You ‘feel’ it. A truly beautiful person is someone who is kind, honest, respectful, generous, loyal and genuine and authentically themselves. They make you feel good. They are great to be around. They lift your spirits and inspire. They help others from the generosity and kindness of their hearts without ever expecting anything in return.

Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart.

Khalil Gibran

Sharon

Sharon is my younger sister (by 15 months) and we share lots of history and attributes. She is cleverer than me but I’m more social than her so I tend to think we balance each other out well. Sharon blogs intermittently at Musings from the Cold and is a fabulous photographer plus she’s pretty good with words too!

Sharon has written about our beautiful grandmother, Nan in Murbah as we called her, and I agree with everything she’s written. Her words say it all, Nan was a beautiful person through and through, kindness is a wonderful definition of beauty.

I’ve always described my paternal grandmother as beautiful, even though I’m sure she never thought of herself that way.

I can really only remember Nan from when she was in her late 50s and she probably didn’t conform to societal notions of beauty. She wasn’t ‘elegant’ or ‘fashionable’ and her nails never ever matched her handbag – she certainly didn’t ever spend Sunday nights removing the old nail polish and applying the new week’s colour as my other grandmother did.

But to me, Nan was beautiful. She hadn’t had an easy life, and by the time she was in her 80s she was beginning to stoop till she was almost bent double. Her skin was paper-thin and soft, and she washed her hair using sunlight soap. Nan was patient and humble, warm and funny, generous and strong. Above all else, she was kind. I’ve always thought it’s the best kind of beauty to have.

Barbara

Barbara writes about life in Wellington New Zealand and blogs at Thistles and Kiwis, She is always so lovely sharing the posts of others, with her readers in her regular Small Pleasures posts. Barbara loves summer, sunshine and cats, is a beginner gardener, likes eating, cooking and reading about food. We share regular posts with her interest in books and food and I always enjoy reading her perspective on things.

A perfect rose, the first spring daffodil, a purple iris, a bee inside a foxglove petal. A bright red, shining apple, a bowl of sweet smelling oranges, a pile of fresh green peas.

Sunshine, early in the morning, lighting up the day. Seeing something unexpected that makes me smile and say ‘how beautiful it looks today’ My husband’s smile when it lights up his face (a bit sentimental!).

Jen

Jen is a blogger who I met in person a few years ago – always a fun thing to do, meeting up with other bloggers who we’ve only ever read via our blogs! She’s since retired from work and is enjoying her new lifestyle keeping active and reading lots of books. We have cycling, blogging and reading in common and I’m hoping Jen will make her way up here to ride our rail trail with me one day.

Jen writes on Substack as The Retirement Phase and her book blog is Jennifer’s Bookish Blog. I can certainly relate to Jen’s words on beauty!

I remember as a teenager, looking around at my friends, and all I wanted was to be beautiful, with perfect features and hair, as I thought they had. In my mind I was never confident in my own skin, and I didn’t ever seem to measure up to my friends. As I started to age, I very quickly realised that beauty comes from within. It has nothing to do with who you are, what you look like, the products you use on your skin, or the clothes that you choose to wear.

Beauty goes much further than our physical appearance. As far as I am concerned, inner beauty is far more important than the face or outer shell that we show to the world. We show inner beauty by how we treat others. As an example, some of the traits of beauty are kindness, empathy, authenticity compassion and showing consideration to others. If you are at peace with yourself, your inner beauty shows through. I’ve found that a kind, confident, compassionate person, who shows a genuine interest in others is truly beautiful.

What is Tell Us About…?

Tell Us About…is a monthly opportunity for bloggers to showcase their creativity, created by Gail from ‘Is This Mutton’ – another great blogging friendship group! Each month one of the co-hosts will choose a theme to focus on, and everyone is welcome to join us.

The linkup can be found below and on Gail’s blog – Is this Mutton – and here is the list of prompts for the rest of the year, so we hope you can plan ahead and join in.

Remember the linkup opens on the 3rd Thursday of the month.

• 18 July: Blogging (Debbie)
• 15 August: Holidays/Vacations (MK)
• 19 September: Favourite Things (Jill)
• 17 October: Schooldays (Penny)
• 21 November: Confidence (Gail)
• 19 December: My Year in Review (Sue)

Thoughts on Beauty from my Tell Us About friends

My fellow Tell Us About blogging friends have all done a post on the topic of beauty so I hope you’ll click on the links in each blogger’s summary below to see what they’ve written. It’s always fun to read how others have treated the prompts.

• You’re reading my post – I hope you enjoyed it 🙂
• Gail from Is this Mutton (UK) looks at the concept of beauty over the ages and how women still suffer to conform to society’s expectations. 
• Jill from Grownup Glamour (Aus) takes on beauty was looking at it in many forms .
• Leslie from Once Upon a Time Happily Ever After shares some of the things that make her world a more beautiful place.  
• Marsha from Marsha in the Middle (USA) – While Marsha proposed the theme of beauty, she’s not talking beauty in the fashion world.  Instead, she’s writing about the beauty we can see all around us.
• Mary Katherine from MKsAdventure (USA) reflects on the importance our society places on “beauty” for women, and how she wrestles in her own life to balance having gravitas and glitter at the same time…
• Penny from Frugal Fashion Shopper (UK) looked at beauty from all angles (because there are so many aspects of this idea of beauty)  and decided to write mainly about the history of eyebrows! 
• Sue from Women living Well After 50 (Aus) explores beauty in all forms and discusses how we can thrive by putting the focus on our inner beauty as well as the beauty that surrounds us.
• Suzy from Suzy Turner blog (Portugal) delves into the journey of self-love and embracing authentic beauty, wrinkles and all.

To sum up

As you can see , beauty has many meanings and the beauty of writing a post this way, is that everyone shares their views on what makes something or someone a ‘beauty’. It’s wonderful to see the variety of responses I’ve received and really, I have nothing further to add. Everyone has covered it so well.

I’ve really enjoyed this compilation of thoughts and hope you have too. I also hope I’ve introduced you to some special women.

I’d love to know what beauty means to you?

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Recent posts you may have missed:

• Reading travel brochures and recommendations #WOYBS
• Tell Us About…Beauty
• Time for a short break – why I’m going to attempt a blogging/social media break
• Sculptures deep in the forest (Part 2) #WWWhimsy
• Taking Stock and Thriving in May #WBOYC

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