You Are Not Alone

______The staggering amount of supportive comments I received on my last post was rather awe-inspiring; each one of your honest and thoughtful comments brought me a little smile, an agreeable hum, or something in-between. What was even more eye-opening was the fact that everyone has struggled with accepting their own image at least once before, or still does on a daily basis.

______Knowing that these thoughts have entered most people's minds is more disheartening than it comforting--we all think about these things and yet we fail to open up about them, perhaps because we don't want to seem negative, or perhaps because we dislike to sound as if we're fishing for attention.



______But on the up side, it also made me realize how many kind-hearted people I've met since I began blogging. So many! You're all really lovely, okay? And I'm going to work on accepting myself more, as long as you all promise the same. It will be a long journey--definitely one that's easier said than done...



______That being said, you all should join me in my pirate ship of positivity, yeah?  Step up and enter with your head held high.  We'll be a gang of attractive pirate folk sailing the seas of self-confidence, gliding alongside the winds of acceptance, and landing on the island of "I don't care what these other wimps think of me". You dig?  Good, because once we're on our island of a lengthy name, we'll definitely be digging in the sands of self-love, and subsequently burying any distorted perceptions of ourselves that we may have forgotten to leave behind on the poop deck.  Sick of my extended metaphor yet?  No?  Excellent!

______From there, we'll scale the winding palm trees that dot this island, picking coconuts and collecting them like happy thoughts. Why coconuts? Because coconuts are flippin' glorious, that's why. And because coconuts, like people, have something on the inside that matters much more than the outside. Applying that concept to others is simple--of course, I'm only going to value someone based on the inside, not their exterior! But believing that the same thing applies to myself is what's difficult.



______What I'm trying to say is thank you all for being such a lovely bunch of coconuts people.  Indeed, there are a many sketchy folk who lurk in the crevices of the blogosphere, but there are also thousands of kind people who eclipse the aforementioned.  You're all proof that it's possible to find goodness within the vast confines of the Internet.  Thank you, thank you, and thank you again.

Dress: Charlotte Russe
Tights: Hue
Heels: Liz Claiborne via TJ Maxx
Polka dotty silk scarf: secondhand
Earrings: Charming Charlie
Necklace: vintage