The Beautification Process...

The beautification process; stripping down our layers to get to the core of what beauty truly is. As we travel along life’s journey we come into some bad weather. You know the heavy rains, sleet, snow, lightening, thunder, flash floods, and wind. Man, that wind can be something fierce! We get through all of it though, but far from unscathed. We fight our way through only to face a bear, lion, snake, shark, or even a vulture. The vultures are the worst, just waiting on us to die. Stalking us like prey. Waiting for us to stumble in our weakness and fall to the ground so it may swoop in and devour; consume what part of us that made it out of the bad weather. We keep pressing though! We may stumble but we don’t fall. However, we feel defeated, beat down, bruised up, picked apart, and mulled over. We feel anything but beautiful. We only see the hardship that tore up our exterior. We see ourselves as the negative things we’ve encountered along this journey. We don’t see the strength that it took to get through all that we got through; that beautiful strength. We don’t see the love that it took to forgive the bears and vultures in our lives; the beautiful love. We don’t see the tenacity it took to keep pressing, when we could’ve just laid down and died. We don’t see the virtual (and natural) stretch marks of life on our bodies as evidence that we carried and birthed greatness. We don’t see our battle wounds as evidence of survival. We only see our struggle and completely over look the beauty of it all. Everything we have encountered, endured, embodied, and conquered is all a part of the process to beautify us; from the inside out. That journey, which we love to hate, is designed to shape and mold us into the beings that we are. I challenge you to look at yourself and not see the fire or the ashes; but instead the Phoenix that rose from them. The beautiful Phoenix that you are. We all have to go through the process; so it helps to at some point decide to recognize the beauty that comes from it. It’s there, you just have to choose to see it....with your beautiful self!

Be encouraged today.

Love and blessings xoxo,

~ Shawnetta N. Murray~