I love myself some black and white photos. There’s something about them that feels classic and timeless. It’s like freezing a moment in time, even beyond a normal photograph. There’s also something about them that tells the truth. They strip away the excess and expose the raw features of ourselves. They are beautiful, and so are we.
That raw, real, stripped down state of being is so beautiful, and yet we keep it hidden. Tucked away at best, buried away at worst. Sometimes, we forget about ourselves, until we see it, suddenly and unexpectedly. We have such a tendency to be uncomfortable with raw emotion but it’s beautiful. We cling so tightly to “keeping it together” that we lose this raw, real version of ourselves. We are so guarded and hidden at times.
Somewhere along the way we traded in the truth. We traded in real and raw, and exchanged it for fake and polished. We traded in the response of “I’m struggling” with “fine, thank you.” We are so polite, even when we lie. We traded in our honesty for perfection, even with the people we love the most. We hide behind our polish until we realize we are missing out on our lives.
Sweet friends, life is really hard sometimes. Sometimes, it’s a raw and uncut version and at other times its beautiful and honest. I don’t fully understand when it became so unacceptable to make a mistake but we have traded our authenticity for perfection, and our truth for lies. Today, be honest when someone asks you how you are. Have real conversations with the people in your household. Take the mask off and let the guard down, the raw version of you is beautiful. Our perfection puts pressure on other people, letting our guards down gives others permission to let theirs down also. Relax into the beautiful human you are, you are not a mess, you are a living, breathing complicated human and that is where the beauty is. Much love and honest living sweet friends.
