Comments on: Totally hot

By: Philippa

Philippa — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 18:30:32 +0000

Some days, I take a quick a look in the mirror before I leave the house, and I think, ‘I look *pretty* today’, and then this whole bucket of self-loathing and recrimination that’s always suspended over my head tips over, drenching me in it. It always reminds me of a passage in one of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books in which a nearly grown-up Laura, dressed up to go to her first dinner with friends, admires the light falling on her braided her and is suddenly shocked to find that she is ‘vain of’ her hair and immediately starts away from the mirror. And if that’s not a revealing comparison, I don’t know what is.

Thanks for this post. Made me think.

By: Willemtje

Willemtje — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 17:28:56 +0000

If you look in the mirror and find points to criticise, smile at yourself and you will be surprised at the difference this makes! It will also make you feel a lot better inside.
Thanks for you blog, I have learned a lot from you and other American knitters and have become much more adventurous in my knitting, which makes it more satisfying.

A Dutch knitter

By: the Lady

the Lady — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 20:42:33 +0000

p.s. – skirts are a very forgiving wardrobe item. whether you gain or lose weight, if you like your legs from the knee down, and you get a knee-length skirt, they are a great thing.

By: Restless Knitter

Restless Knitter — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 20:33:03 +0000

Just popping out of lurkdom to tell you that I really enjoyed this post. (Not that I don’t enjoy the others!) It really made me stop and think. Thank you

By: the Lady

the Lady — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 19:56:23 +0000

I hope you don’t subscribe to, or buy those wretched magazines. Humans are these wonderful information machines, cataloging everything around them, which includes drawing comparisons about all experiences. When some young starlet or model is looking at you from the cover of a magazine, being paid for her beauty and youth, it is difficult perhaps, if you’re not accustomed to not, to not look and draw comparisons. But it all needs to be taken with a huge grain of salt, yeah?

I’m lucky – I never had a problem with not enough vanity! My grandma did tell me something when I was little, which I think was wise – “if you tell yourself you’re beautiful, you will be beautiful. If you tell yourself you’re ugly or stupid, you will be ugly or stupid – maybe both!” So do, and don’t. Stick a little sign over your mirror, and tell yourself aloud each day “I am beautiful.” Or whatever it is.

Anyways, as a knitblogger who’s been reading people the last year – I really don’t have any interest in being like or looking like the covers on those magazines. I think it’d be MUCH cooler to meet and hang out with the men & women whose blogs I’ve got linked in my sidebar!

Good luck with it all, being aware is the first step.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 18:18:18 +0000

Amanda beat me to it – I, too, was going to say that you’re one of those people I always think is beautiful. You have a lovely form and face, of course, but I also think I can see a lot about the experiences you have lived and something about the core of your being in your postures and expressions and gaze into the camera. That rare natural exuding of self is beguiling, and many pretty people don’t have it.

At a wedding last year I saw a couple of friends from an old life – since we’d parted company, they’d been married, nursed her mother through terminal cancer, suffered the death of their son during his birth, and experienced a quantum of healing through the birth of a second, healthy boy. The woman in particular had always been attractive – a sort of merry spirit always laughing and thinking up fun and engaging the people around her, with a pretty face to boot. Now she looks chiseled by her experiences, leaner, steelier, but also deeper and warmer. It’s a beauty marked by pain, but it’s a richer beauty.

By: Amanda

Amanda — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 15:34:50 +0000

Ok, have you been reading my mind over the past few days? I have had those days (ok months) where I was preoccupied with the winter weight I put on. I, too, am naturally thin and even with others telling me I looked better with the weight on, in my twisted mind I was sure they were just saying that because they weighted more than me and it made them feel better about themselves (crazy? yes). When none of your clothes fit it is hard to believe that you actually look good.

Since I have reached the wise old age of 30 (right after I got over the ‘OMG I am 30!!! waaaaaaa’) I have made it a point to look in the mirror ever day and appreciate one thing about myself. Vanity or not, it makes me appreciate what I have to work with.

I love the pictures of real women in the blogs I read and too appreciate the beauty in the crooked smile, the goofy looks, the years of experience etched in the fine lines around their eyes… and you know what? I have noticed the beauty in you as well. You are hot! But more than that, when I see pictures of you I see a kind soul and a good person. Start loving what is inside of yourself just as much as you love your daughter for who she is (not how beautiful) and she will indeed learn the true meaning of beautiful!