Living Proof

There are evenings when my wife will spend a little extra time in the bathroom putting on these anti-aging creams and 'dewrinklers' as if she was a piece of linen. She comes back smelling like fragrant mud. I admire her persistence of always keeping herself nice and looking young. I started dating her when she was 29 years old. And may lightening strike me, I still see her as 29. I ask her why does she even bother with these rituals if her skin is naturally beautiful and young, just like her mom's. She says, "Well I have dark circles under my eyes ---see? And I have wrinkles in places I never saw before."  I stare at her face --- I see the 29 year old I fell in love with. I honestly never see any flaws on her. There was even a time when Mad 'thought' she had put on weight. I never noticed. To me, she was the same beautiful and curvy woman I fell in love with. Since then, she has lost all the weight she put on, but the fact is, I never even realized it u...

To me, the world is like a big garden with a vast array of flowers, each unique in their own way. Not one flower is “prettier” than the other - they’re just different. People pick flowers according to their liking, not necessarily according what’s “best” in other people’s eyes. There may be a few weeds in the garden to pull some of these beautiful flowers down and make them feel less desired, but that doesn’t mean they were any less than the ones that were picked out to be placed in a beautiful bouquet. Each flower has their own scent, their own shape and size, and their own color and texture - all beautiful in a very different way. None can be compared to another. Society and especially the media has put much emphasis on being a size 0, or at least, as skinny as a rail. More and more teenagers as well as adults are developing eating disorders whether due to people judging them or because they have body dysmorphia - they see a fat person in the mirror while being at a healthy weig...