The question for me has been, how do I begin this… What should I say, and how should I say it? I’ll start with this… I had a faux pa experience… My facial complexion took on a different appearance. One, of course, I was not use to… Besides the occasional blemish, letting me know my body is requiring better attention from me, my skin developed another tone… When it first happened, I looked at my face in the mirror and said, hmmmmm… What’s this? Then I did what I normally do, ignored it entirely, for I knew my skin would soon show itself as clear again… I kept with my familiar facial cleaning and moisturizing routine and nurtured my skin as usual… The discoloration I was seeing would come to its end…

For those of you who don’t know, and those who don’t see me regularly, I have been making my own skin and body care products for several years… I did research to find out what key ingredients and oils would keep my skin healthy and flawless… What I produced truly magnified my skin’s health and clear complexion… I thought about mass producing my products and selling them; nonetheless, I had not developed enough interest to do so… Either way, I love making my own natural, beauty products… especially because, what I put on my skin is what I can put into my body… I can actually ingest the ingredients and my skin looks more organic… Works for me… Who wouldn’t want a healthy body, inside and out?

Not long after my skin developed rosy pink discolorations, they became barely noticeable… I went on with my life as happy and go lucky as I could possibly be… My work was still exciting and inspiring me and others… I continued to involve myself in activities that sustained my interest and joy, and I focused on simply living a good life… As time went on there were days when I woke up to almost clear skin, and there were days when my skin required more inspection… I had been in this place before, while going through transitional experiences, like leaving for college. When it was time for me to move out of my home, onto campus, a completely new environment, with a room-mate, which I had gotten use to not having, I developed a short bout with mild acne… The same experience occurred when my marital status was changing… It seemed my face communicated what my mind and body was mentally and emotionally expressing… SOMETHING DIFFERENT IS HAPPENING IN YOUR LIFE… I was back in Connecticut for a little more than a week, after living away for about one and a half years, when the change with my skin took place…

Change was indeed happening… Another new adjustment… New diet… New routines… New way of being… with myself, with others, in the world… and so forth… There were times when change was easy; there were times when it wasn’t… What’s now being required from me? The inquisitive self always wants to know, especially before complying… Nonetheless, remaining true to me continually brought great relief… Through this level of honesty more of what I needed to know was revealed to me… Especially, my own potential and power… and I was able to see myself as a greater, happier and freer person… Life always opens ways for us to become more… And it is Life that wants these ways to be simple and easy, even when we are resistant… Who and what we truly are is beyond our thoughts, emotions and analyzations… We each are indefinable beings, who are able to create for ourselves miraculous existences…

The mirrors that are put before us, in the form of looking glasses, where we are able to see versions of our own physical selves, how do they show us? What about the mirrors that are put before us, in the form of people, experiences and a world… Are these people, experiences and the world, reflections of our beliefs and imaginations and/or the beliefs and imaginations of others… What is being exposed to us? Either way, we are always given an opportunity to see and experience ourselves, others and the world through new eyes… We are given opportunities to bring down the veils and remove the masks used to disguise what we or others prefer not to see… How do we change ourselves, if we are not able to truly see ourselves, as we have made ourselves, or as we have allowed others to make us…

Early in my writing career, I was meeting more creative, expressive and literary individuals… We loved music, art, the written and verbal prose and poetry, and things colorful, vibrant and eclectic… I was becoming quite fascinated and moved by this other world… One that brought me face-to-face with both new artists as well as those familiar and well-known… It was a life I thought to be promising for an up and coming writer… In this world, I was learning the vitality of emotion and feeling… In this world, unlike the world I had been most acquainted with, intellect was not given as high a value as what we experienced in our hearts… I was learning that our hearts are what expose to us the real truth of our lives… When I was told by a New York professor and literary mind that I was wearing a mask, I had no idea what he was talking about… I didn’t believe or feel that I was hiding anything… I let myself be who and what I believed I was… It was years later that I came to finally grasp his words… As a writer, I was approaching the world through my intellect, more so than through my heart… The mask was the protective guard I created to keep my heart from being entirely exposed…

I was holding back feelings I didn’t fully understand and some I wanted made known… I didn’t always know how to speak about what really mattered to me, mostly with those who mattered to me… But as I began to spend more time alone, I was learning how to develop a more sincere relationship with me… which would lead me to have a more genuine relationship with others…  I further opened myself to experiencing my truest emotions and feelings, regardless of what they were… Before this, I thought others in my life and in the world might be too hard on me for being so honest with what I felt. I was told by others, and actually experienced, that some of my truths were not easily acceptable… What this meant to me was that my truths could easily be dis-regarded, shut down or totally ignored… But while by myself, rather than listen to the voices that caused me to believe my emotions and feelings didn’t matter, I heard only the soft voice inside that let me know, my life and what I feel will always matter…

My life and what I feel will always matter… My life and what I feel will always matter… I repeat these words not because I am inclined to convince others, but because it is a truth I am not afraid of… And it is a truth I am not afraid to share with others… My life and what I feel will always matter… I have been born into this life to live it, so I will… And I will do so, fully… I won’t resist what my mind wants me or others to know… I won’t resist what my heart wants me or others to feel… I won’t resist what my life wants me to be, in order that I can live a greater and higher life… I am here, in this life, as I am… When I see myself in the looking glasses of life, regardless of their forms, I see beauty… And I tell myself, without reservation, ‘You are beautiful.’ It is not a vain or prideful statement. It is a truth I am worthy of… It is a truth we all are worthy of knowing and hearing…

I remember viewing an absolutely insightful on-line video… The video shared how individuals actually saw themselves, their physical appearances… And it showed how an artist saw these same individuals through his penciled sketches… Some saw themselves through kind and loving eyes, while others saw themselves through critical and dis-concerted eyes… Yet, the artist’s view remained the same… He could only see beauty in each person… I was so deeply touched by what I was witnessing… Because the video was so thought-provoking and inspiring, I shared it with others on social media… Subsequently, I received feedback regarding how people saw me, and wanted to see me… I’ve heard many times from others that they think I am beautiful… To each of you, I am grateful… Around the time I shared the video, I heard others saw me as too perfect, and wanted to make my perfect, imperfect… And I experienced those who wanted to make what they believed to be imperfect about themselves, perfect through me… The truth of my heart regarding those who focus on the perfections and imperfections of our lives is this… We each will always have the ability to create and re-create not others, but ourselves… But first, before we proceed to do so, may we all see ourselves through a liberated mind and thoughtful heart… If we see ourselves as ugly, which I too was told others wanted to make me, then ugly is what we’ll most likely experience in the reflections of humanity and our world…  For those of you who require this… ugly, can only mean one thing to me… See clearly these words… (U)ndeniably… (G)od… (L)oves… (Y)ou…

Without having been fully aware, I internalized what I heard regarding how others wanted to see me… I shared that inspiring video with the hope we all would see ourselves as an artist… whose eyes see only beauty… I was dis-heartened the feedback included lower perceptions… I was reminded that there were other times in my life I was confronted by individuals who wanted to make me other than I was… Perhaps the discoloration that appeared on my face is due to the emotions and feelings that welled up in me from each of these experiences… The darker tones on my skin have faded and have re-appeared since they first developed… I’ve fully come to terms with how others have perceived and viewed me… My higher perspective and loving feelings about myself are constant… My wish is that all people will come to terms with and recognize too their own organic and physical beauty… I have a pencil in my hand, figuratively… As I see myself, as I see others, and as I see the world, I will invariably be the artist whose eyes see only beauty… There is room in our world(s) for more than one such artist… May your pencils as well sketch reflections which make all beautiful…

Life, I’ll let this go now… I’ll start new… (Un)mask me… All of me… Let my mind be emptied, remaining only with glorious thoughts and dreams… Let my heart be emptied, remaining with only pure and gracious love… Let me be emptied, entirely… so I can be more of the person I sincerely want to be… My life and what I feel…matter… My life and what I feel…matter… I am beautiful… And so are you, each of you…   

Stay tuned for track 3 of 17… There’s more Nude Music coming your way… Life is Good…

 

Photography: Partners In Goodwill (P.I.G.) ~ www.partnersingoodwill.com

Imagery Concept: Partners In Goodwill (P.I.G.) ~ www.partnersingoodwill.com

Sustainable (Un)Clothing : Unif(eyed) Colors Campaign (UCC) ~ www.partnersingoodwill.com

For more about me and my life views visit, www.windinc.org and pickup my latest book, “Rise & Reach: Life and Leadership” or all of my books, there’s currently a total of 7, at: www.amazon.com … www.barnesandnoble.com … www.partnersingoodwill.com … This latest project, “My Recycled Life… Within The Compilation of (Un)Framed Music…” was inspired by Chapter 10  ~ Doing More That Matters … written in the book  “Rise & Reach: Life and Leadership” This track, (Un)Mask, was inspired by Chapter 5 ~ The Promise… It begins with the following quote:

 

That a man can change himself, improve himself, recreate himself,

control his environment, and master his own destiny is the conclusion

of every mind that is wide awake to the power of right thought in

constructive action.     ~ Christian D. Larsen