mindless thoughts

I think it's interesting, if not a bit sad, how conditioned we are to find the faults in ourselves. So often, I will take a photo of my friends, and they will immediately tell me how awful they appear. And I can't really fathom it, because in that moment, I think they look the most beautiful. When they are caught off-guard, or laughing uncontrollably, or just simply in a quiet moment of reflection. And when I think about this, I wish so badly that others could see themselves how they are seen by those around them, those that love them. Not the crinkles around their eyes or a part of them they think is too big or too small, but the essence they carry in those photographs. I found a picture the other day from a trip, of my sister looking back at me, unposed. She is surrounded by light and plants, and she looks beautiful; the way I have always seen her. She hates that photo, because she tells me her face has a strange expression and her body isn't angled exactly right. But I am flooded with warm memories when I see it. Memories of her walking barefoot through a rainforest, watching my family that I love so dearly explore a new place with eager eyes. Too often, we see only what is wrong with us, what could be changed and picked apart and adjusted until it is perfect. But others do not see us like this. They see us and look with love as we laugh and do the simple things that we think of as unworthy of capturing. I too, am guilty of this. I am so quick to criticize, quick to forget that the imperfections I see are things that only I will ever notice and be uncomfortable with. Still, it remains heartbreaking to think that the people we love will never be able to see themselves through our eyes. And for so many reasons, I find it so important to say to people the things that we wish others would say to us; You are beautiful, you are wonderful, you are kind, you are important.