Happy Tuesday

You know what?

You look beautiful. 

Those cheerio crumbs in your cleavage really compliment the messy, three days since your last shower ponytail. 

Your spit up accents on your shoulders are the perfect accompaniment to the dark circles under your eyes. 

Those yoga/pajama/sweat pants with the hole worn in the knee make your butt look FABULOUS. 

It means your kids spent the day cared for, having fun, and being loved. 

And there is nothing more beautiful than that. 

Rock that t shirt from your junior year choir trip and believe your husband when he says you look gorgeous today. 

Because you do. Even if you don't feel like it. Please remember how beautiful you are. Maybe not as perky and sleek as you used to be. I know I'm not. But you have a new beauty. It radiates from your soul and shines through your whole being. And that's not just the TV glaring off your greasy hair. 

It's the light of love, patience, power, and compassion that is ignited when you become a mother and will never stop shining. 

I'm blind to it most days as I look in the mirror and see a paunch where a flat six pack used to be. I ignore it when my once perky and perfect boobs sag like two pancakes tacked to a bulletin board. I get angry when husband comes home and tells me how gorgeous I am. 

But when you're sitting on an airplane without your kids, reading a book quietly, and you hear the exasperated cry of a bored toddler, you're light clicks on a little brighter and all you want to do is help. When you swore you would never be a creepy baby ogler, and yet here you are gently cupping the glorious hair of a stranger's infant and cooing about how stunning she is. 

I saw the light of a mother in myself today. And in the frustrated eyes of another mom, and in the tired shoulders of yet another. 

We all have it. Whether we are mothers by birth or adoption or outer space, we all have that brilliant glow within us. 

And we are beautiful.