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leavesWhen I posted Wednesday Wisdom yesterday about needing, and finding, beauty in our everyday lives, there was so much more I wanted to say.

I wanted to find a picture of imperfection as beauty. I looked through images of young women with an abundance of freckles (I love freckles!), stumbled across an image of Vanessa Paradis in all her gap-toothed glory, and found the image I included of gorgeous, yet imperfect, leaves.

Later, while scrolling through Pinterest, I saw a couple people pinned images of Marilyn Monroe and her famous quote about how imperfection is beauty. Funny, I thought. I was just thinking about that. A lotus floating on the surface of a pond is an image that will always sooth me. I find them to represent purity and beauty. But there is also something majestic about imperfection, and finding the beauty there proves slightly more difficult.

Then, the lovely Andi, who writes an amazing blog Polish My Crown, posted and discussed the Dove Real Beauty Sketches video. I watched the video and was amazed. Am I taking this turn of events too far, or was it fate? “Women are their own worst beauty critics,” Andi writes. In my musings about beauty and imperfection, this topic had also crossed my mind. When explaining ourselves to others, we tend to be self-deprecating. The video reminds us to look past our physical flaws—strangers don’t notice the same small imperfections as we do.  And apparently, they use much kinder words to describe us.

In examining daily beauties of the world, I hope we not only recall the unexpected moments of beauty, but also remember to appreciate the beauty within ourselves—to let down the insecurities and barriers and admire who we are.

Watch the video below. How do you feel about Dove’s campaigns?