Now

Anyone else turn into a monster when they are hungry?? I have learned to recognise the angry beast which rears it's ugly head whenever the munchies hit, gnashing it's teeth and howling from the hunger pit. The beast must be fed!!! 
I wish I could write more but the hungry monster has taken a chunk out of my brain.

Beauty tips

It seems that flowers have no shame, no vanity when it comes to being photographed.  And THIS I love them for.  It's probably why they are one of my favourite photographic subjects. 
People being one of my other favourites.  However, unlike the very obliging flower community, happy to pose with no inhibitions for my snippy-snaps, people are not always so keen.
People, it seems, have a much tougher job in front of the camera.  How many people do you know who really seem to hate having their photo taken?
I had a friend who used to fake a sick day or failing that, sneak out of sight at the last minute every time we had class photos.  I think he was only in one photo I had.  I have a feeling his parents had a distinct lack of photos of him too.
In my friend's case, I don't think it was shyness which caused his intense dislike of camera-focus, but a genuine suspicion of his image being kidnapped, held captive on paper and never being free to roam again.

I don't think flowers think that deeply about the whole thing.

However, for a lot of people, it's not so much about a belief in how a representation of your image may be problematic at a philisophical level, it's about plain old self-image and self-confidence.

You feel good and gorgeous - what's the liklihood that you are quite happy about the idea of a representation of this being captured and admired - and surely you want to share it with the world!! 
You feel stink and sucky - and I'm guessing it's not something you want recorded and probably don't want going out into people's lives via facebook.

Flowers appear to just wake up every morning looking gorgeous, un-worried about their appearance, secure in their identity and shamelessly showing off their brilliance to anyone who stops to look.  And what exactly, I wonder, stops us human-flowers from waking up with exactly the same confidence.

Flowers look good.  Flowers smell pretty damn good.

I'm pretty sure we would look and smell good too if we just allowed ourselves to be naturally who we are - without adding into the mix (beyond a nice healthy shower...because I'm advocating natural here, not *unclean*.  There is an important difference) a whole host of lotions and potions, concocted out of some pretty freaky sounding chemical components (do we actually KNOW what we are scrubbing into/spraying onto/massaging into/applying to our bodies?) which effectively just disguises the natural you.  And the natural you is where it's at.  THIS is enough.

It's not that I don't like all the additions.  It can be fun to dress-up and I am the first one to say *yes please* to sparkles and glittery shimmer.  But when I begin to not recognise myself without my carefully applied mask, and the morning routine has to accomodate not just getting clean and fed but also getting a professional paint-job, I start to wonder why can't I be more like a flower...

Are we afraid that what we have on the outside in its pure and natural form, is not enough?

The ability to think, reason, analyse, rationalise, imagine, dream and visualise are human qualities which flowers are not particularly known for.  Flowers, beautiful as they are, offer a beauty which is uncomplicated by the inner world - which us human-beauties have to contend with.  At one level, this makes the human beauty-thing extremely complex, as no matter how physically attractive we may be, our mental capacity for criticising, self-depreciating and comparing can be exhausting.  It can also convince us that we are not able to exist comfortable in our natural state...and beauty must be cultivated, rather than accepted as already in existence.
However, this inner world also offers a whole exciting dimension of thought, feeling, soul or spirit, which gives us the capacity to be beautiful - really beautiful - at a much deeper level.
We are not the shallow beauty which is merely skin deep and our outer skins do not define who we are.

Human-beauty may be breath-taking, even heart-stopping but it is only interesting if we accept there is much more to ourselves than external shimmer and dazzle.  The danger is that versions of beauty, immortalised in photographs, can seduce us into thinking these are THE template for perfection and this is where, frankly folks, flowers are a much better role-model. 

See what I'm saying people.  Flowers.  Forget models and magazines trying to sell you all the additives - it's all about the average bloom.  Let's get inspired to get real and find the beauty which IS each of us, by seeing it reflected in what exists all around us...and maybe, just maybe if we start to feel it, we might just start being it.

So gorgeous people, I say let's go hunting for the sparkle that lives in each and every one of us.  Find it and shine it up, give it some respect, learn to appreciate it and most importantly SHARE it with others.

And then I might get a photo out of you too.

Quick thought

This is the view I wake up to every morning. It's always the same and it's also ever changing.
I could look at beauty like this for hours and never get tired of it for these very reasons. It stays the same and yet it's never the same.  Far more interesting than botox. And surgery to erase your quirks. And shopping at Glassons.
Yay for great views.