The Secret to Being Beautiful...

Being beautiful is a phenomenal journey that is only embarked upon by those who are wise enough to know how intricate and expansive the process is. I see young women and seasoned women, alike, attempting to buy beauty at a MAC counter or in BeBe. And I laugh to myself because I feel like angels shared a special secret with me at such a vital point in my life.

This beauty that we seek in malls, the gorgeous bodies we starve ourselves to attain...is all pursued in the most blind vanity. There is such a sad undertone to it all. Though it is 2010 and we are all so "aware" of ourselves, I realize that commercials are still geared toward the 3% of women in this country who have size 2 waists. And its unfortunate because being booty-licious with a tiny waist won't help keep a family together. Being America's Next Top Video Vixen won't help young women around the country increase self-esteem.

Even young men obsess over abs and biceps, but don't understand simple concepts like: chilvary, kindness, and respect. Yet, we're all so damn beautiful. I'm convinced that no one even knows what beauty really is anymore. There's some ridiculous misconception that it is reflected in a mirror or defined by the waist-to-hip-to-chest ratio. But the truth is...beauty is in an embrace. When a person is able to sincerely hold you at the weakest moment you've ever faced and when his/her touch makes you more aware of yourself than you've ever been...beauty is present. When someone kisses you and your pain melts like ice cubes in Savannah heat...beauty is legible and interpreted like the clearest font. Beauty is an action. It is the momentum that's necessary in order for one person to (not only attract) but magnetically draw another. People don't stay together anymore because no one has any idea what the hell "being beautiful" is all about.

In order to be beautiful, a person must live from the depths of the soul. There should be a radiance present whenever the room is filled with such rare, clean beauty. There must be a powerful empathy within and a concern for the well-fare of others. The willingness to forgive makes us beautiful. The desire to love after redundant heartbreak makes us beautiful. Bright-ass lip gloss and skinny jeans does not.

Taking care of your appearance is vital. True beauty can be stifled and ignored if the exterior of your temple is abandoned. People can't see the sunlight through dirty windows so I suggest that your image be fabulous...but what's truly important, is your soul.

Perhaps, if you knew how beautiful you were...beyond the blond highlights and that big ghetto-booty...you'd be able to hold on to love for longer than a week and a half. Maybe if you realized that love isn't about finding someone who has 4 Escalades and an urban apartment, you'd have a life partner by now. Maybe if someone told you that Drake is never going to marry you, you'd stop trying to look like the hoes in his videos and you'd accept the fact that you're gorgeous already...stretchmarks and all. (Yeah I said it).

Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder...so if you'd measure your own beauty with your own eyes...you'd be a lot more particular about you let be(with and)hold you.

And that's real.