why all the embarrassment?

First, thank you so much to those of you who left comments on the first post! I encourage everyone who stops by to leave a comment on this post, either in connection to what's been said, or just a musing of your own.

Alright. It's true confession time, ladies. I assume this blog will be quite a bit of that, as I've already informed you I hope that all of the words I put here will be good and true.

For the past two and a half days, I have stared at red stop lights, rolled underneath green ones, and slowly (or quickly!) come to a stop (or raced through! : / ) yellow lights, asking, "What to say to these fantastic women? What do I want to share with them that really means something?"

I know this sounds ridiculous. Even I find myself saying, Claire, seriously? Just write something! Anything! You're being silly about this. It's JUST A BLOG.

I know that's true. But you also must understand that for me, women knowing that they are beautiful, and loved, and valued, and encouraging women to look inside themselves and see what beauty that can find there, or make there, is something that is such a passion of mine, I am incapable of just pushing it to the side. I know it will be a large, large part of my life for the rest of my life. That's big deal stuff. That's change your life for, raise your voice for, dance and sing for sort of stuff. So I will. Please join me in it.

It may not always seem "super deep," and that's not the point. It will sometimes be so simple you may wonder why I posted anything at all. Maybe you won't be able to see the connection to you as a woman, or a No Plain-Faced Girl right away, but that's part of it. Dig, probe, explore, talk it out. I see all of this as part of the beauty of what this is- sharing ourselves with each other, bouncing ideas off of what you've seen here, raising a voice out there in the big world, where we fight the battle every day to know and feel and believe that we are beautiful.

Consider that the introduction to the first musing. :)

I carried around a small, light brown moleskine for about three months earlier this year, which I kept in my pocket at all times. It was at hand at all times to write down anything I heard, read, or came across that struck me in a new way.

Now the book is past full, and past dogeared, the ink on the front smudged and some water stains on the front pages, but I love it even more for all of those imperfections. In silver paint pen and smudged black marker, the cover reads, "The Aim of Life is to Live," in my sloppy cursive-meets-print style.

I was looking through it just today, hoping that within it's pages I might find something to share with you lovely ladies. The second I came across this poem I had written down, I knew it was the one.

"Why"- Wendell Berry

Why all the embarrassment
about being happy?
Sometimes I'm as happy
as a sleeping dog,
and for the same reasons,
and for others.

Read it a few times. Say it out loud. Picture it.
I'm not going to say anything, just run with it, beautiful girl.
And for the love of all that is potentially good and beautiful, leave a comment--it can be a word, a thought, another poem, an answer to a question, anything.

change your life , raise your voice, dance and sing.

And remember, [[You're No Plain-Faced Girl..."]]




p.s. please facebook friend me if you'd like!!!