Everyone's Energy Radiating Everywhere

I was looking at some old pictures of us -- including me -- today from years ago. For a while there it looked like we let people take pictures of us without acting self-conscious, shy, and ugly. (That's not me in the picture).

The big insight I had -- and I get this insight once in a while, so it's not new -- is how beautiful we were back then. I mean gorgeous beautiful. I'm looking at some pictures of me (not included at the website here) and I am stunned at how great I look. It's amazing.

But then, we think we get old and ugly, old and hideous, etc. And suddenly we're very self-conscious and shy, saying, "Please don't take my picture."

The insight mentioned above isn't just how beautiful we were back then, but how beautiful we must be now, if we would only realize it. Look at it this way: Back then we weren't walking around saying how beautiful we were. We weren't. In fact we were thinking others were so much better looking than us. We had an inferiority complex. Or we felt like 'if this was different' or 'that was different,' then we'd be content. In other words, we were thinking back then just like we're thinking now!

And what we ought to have been thinking then is how beautiful we are. And what we ought to be thinking now is how beautiful we are. It's a simple truth, and it is a truth. We were beautiful, gorgeous then. And if we could only believe it, we're beautiful and gorgeous now.

I would love to collect people if I could. If somehow you could latch on to them without hurting or hindering them and keep a copy of them in a big jar, maybe like the City of Kandor from Superman comics, that'd be great. Or you've got a big file of them, where no one gets hurt, no one suffers, and everyone lives happily as their beautiful selves. Because I guess I love people more than I usually think I do.

It's sometimes tough to be around people, though, because they have their own thing and they're off on it. You've got to keep your distance. You can't go up and say weird things like "I'd love to collect you." Or they'd send someone over to collect you, in a nice big file at the county jail!

Wouldn't it be great to be able to tell people how utterly beautiful they are?! I think it would. I saw a stunning couple yesterday at a function. And another guy went up and told them how "sharp a couple" they were. I thought, Hmm, that's probably not appropriate, but he was utterly right. This couple looked like a million bucks. I wanted to say something like that myself. Like "You two are DROP DEAD STUNNING," but I kept my lip zipped, since our typical thing is not to comment on people's appearance.

And everyone's got it. Even the craggiest, craziest looking person, has something intrinsically wonderful about them. Like me, or like I sometimes imagine I look. I have problems with my appearance. The big danger is to take a picture of me now, then look at it in 20 years and have to say, "Wow! I was beautiful back then!"

It happens. You're beautiful right now.

Note on the Photo: I don't know this young lady. This is a picture I got at an antique store. So in a very mild, limited way, I do collect people. It's quite a photo, I think. The room is so spartan and elementary. She's apparently dressed for Easter, with the bonnet. But she reminds me of Little Bo Peep. Another weird aspect of the picture is how she seems to meld right into the couch.