Isn’t it funny how we look at old buildings with cracks and stones falling off and say “wow that’s beautiful!”. We embrace the flaws and the more wear and tear it has the more ‘character’ we claim it has. We look for flawed, antique items and love when things have a little rust. There is an entire industry of making buildings and items that are new look old because we think it makes them special and gives them something unique. I, myself, have spent hours upon hours looking through antique malls and stores to find just the right ‘old’ book or rusted metal shelf. We fill our homes with things that are old and battered.

We do all of these things, yet when we look in the mirror at ourselves we judge what we see so harshly. We see those cracks and those laugh lines and wrinkles and say the opposite – that our stories don’t matter. We don’t see the years of struggle we went through and we don’t say being left behind in an old barn gave us ‘character’ or ‘charm’. We look at our journeys as unimportant and adding age lines to our face. We spend thousands and thousands of dollars to make ourselves look younger and smooth out the little hairs and lines that don’t give us the perfect look.

I am as guilty as ever of this. I decorate my home with character filled antique items, or items that have been intentionally distressed. But I look at myself in the mirror and I start to see that small signs of aging, the scars of years and years of acne, the stretch marks on my body from growing too quickly or suddenly gaining weight. I don’t think about the struggles I went through and say “oh they made me who I am”. I don’t look at the forming laugh lines and think about all the years and years of happy times and laughing moments.

Why do we judge ourselves so harshly yet seek things out that purposely have flaws? We need to stop looking at every flaw or speck on our face or body and acting like we aren’t good enough. It’s what makes you who you are. Those moments of terror that grayed your hair a little faster mixed with those endless giggles as a child that have formed into a permanent line on your forehead. Your character is within yourself – but we forget that our external body is directly influenced by who we are and what we’ve experienced internally – both negatively and positively. Love your flaws, your cracks and your quirks, they are who you are.