Au Natural

This is me . . . sans makeup.

I know, I know . . . no biggie right? People do it all of the time.  Well, not me.  Although, I do dye my hair to be a light shade of blonde, my natural shade of dirty blonde is still light enough that my eyelashes and eyebrows all but disappear without a little bit of assistance.  I don't wear a lot.  Usually just mascara and a little blush.  But, I never leave the house with it - even to go to the gym.

I didn't always used to be so makeup dependent.  In middle school while all of the other girls were experimenting with brightly colored eye shadows I was doing my best to avoid the subject of makeup.  Just before my freshman year of high school my Mom all but forced me to wear mascara.  Oh the humiliation when family members and kids at school would say "I like your makeup."  To be noticed was the last thing in the world that I wanted.  Now, since everyone in my life seems to know me with makeup on I have that same fear of being "noticed" without it.

I see myself au natural all of the time when I wash my makeup off at night and in the morning before I put it on.  However, this morning as I was drying my hair I looked in the mirror and for the first time since before I started wearing makeup I thought, "that's not so bad."  I felt like I was looking at the girl from the days that we were on vacation at Lake Powell when I was younger.  The days and nights were spent in a bathing suits, and mirrors were unavailable.  Everyone was at their best in their most natural state and life was carefree.  I don't know what the change was this morning . . . could it possibly be that I had a little bit of confidence in myself?  Surely not!?  Although I didn't venture out of the house like this, husband at least gave his nonverbal approval (with lots of kisses) which makes me wonder if I could (and should) do this more often.