Beautifully Different

Today's Reverb 10 prompt: Beautifully Different

Think about what makes you different and what you do that lights people up. Reflect on all the things that make you different – you’ll find they’re what make you beautiful.

Since joining this challenge my mornings have started with checking the day's prompt and blogging my response prior to even getting out of bed.  But today I was stumped.  What makes me beautifully different?  This inquiry felt personal, too personal in fact, so I quickly closed my lap tap and decided to deal with it later.  Now it's later.  UGH.  I don't think I'm very different, although my life is anything but typical, so here it goes.   These are things that make me different:

My life is anything but typical -- I'm 46, single, never been married, and don't have kids, and yet I'm a romantic, domestic and love being around children.

My career has brought me deep satisfaction and financial stability, but I was disillusioned and craved a break.  I've been on "hiatus" for 15 months, and although creatively I'm ready to work again, my criteria has dramatically shifted.  I'm very optimistic about my next career move.

I was raised Catholic -- parochial school, church every Sunday, grace before meals.  In college I stopped believing in organized religion and somewhere in my late 20s I found spirituality.  I'd be lost without it.  I feel deeply connected to the universe.  I believe.  I trust.  I feel profound love. 

I have more freedom and less responsibility than any other time in my life.  I'm living the life most of  us pretend we have in our 20s.  I'm lucky.  I'm grateful. 

I'm analytical, philosophical, sentimental and intellectual.

Since I was old enough to engage I've been blessed with rich, evolving friendships.  They make my world go round.

I go with the flow.  I see the good in most, if not all, people.  I don't like to judge one's behavior.

Art, architecture, design, fashion, style, beauty -- the most glorious things about being human.

I have to be in significant pain to take an aspirin, or on my deathbed to take antibiotics.

I've always preferred whole, fresh foods to anything fast, fried and unrecognizable.

I'm a recent vegetarian.  For now it feels good.

I'm a seeker of truth, authenticity, balance and love.

I like a good party -- a tart margarita, a jammy pinot, a drag of a cigarette -- and yet the older, and cleaner I get the harder it is to recover and justify feeling so crappy.


I'm happiest in nature, but nothing is as sweet as laughing uncontrollably with a friend.

I've had an incredible life and yet I believe the best times are ahead of me. Whenever I doubt this to be true, I stumble.

I'm curious about people.  Everyone has a story and I want to hear it.