Me about 9 sitting in camp on a family trip.

My baby pictures show a round little ball of giggles. Creases at my knees, elbows, wrists show that I was well insulated from the cold. My toothless grin always makes me smile when I look at the pictures - an infectious smile filled with joy. To top off my ruffled dress, a bow was taped to my bald head. I was an adorable baby who grew into a cute kid and an uncoordinated teenager with braces. In all my life, I have never used the word beautiful to describe myself. Other people do, and that's ok - it makes me happy that they think so.

During these statements, I am reminded of the Roseanna Arquette character in the movie Silverado. Several of the male characters referred to her as beautiful and her statement was that she knew people believed it, but she didn't pay them much attention. She had bigger goals such as building a farming community. One day she wouldn't be beautiful, but her land would be. That statement always touched me. Your beauty fades, changes, but if you create something beautiful - that will remain beautiful for a very long time.

I've tried to remind myself of my true beauty from time to time - I may not be society's idea of beautiful, but I make beautiful photos and I write beautiful prose. I feel good when I see an image or story I've created in print. This morning, I listened to myself on the podcast Writing Class Radio. I was reading a story about coming home on a podcast about writing. As I listened, knowing these were my words, this was my voice, I realized I had never felt more beautiful until then.