Happy Girls

“Happy girls are the prettiest girls.” – Audrey Hepburn

I remember reading this quote for the first time many years ago. And though it made sense, I really didn’t understand it. But now I do. And I understand now that I’m older.

When I was younger, I was extremely happy. I had a wonderful fairytale childhood, and I was blessed with two amazing loving parents. I was never shy or too insecure growing up. But then you get older, and life happens. You lose a job, you get your heartbroken, parents and loved ones die, friendships and. And you begin to acquire some depth of emotion. And you begin to acquire this because every time you’re hurt it carves a deeper space within you.

And it is when we get to a point where we are well seasoned, so to speak, that we understand this quote much more. That is because when you are going through highly emotional or difficult times we wear it on our faces. We wear it by the way we walk with the weight of the world on our shoulders. We wear it in a furrowed brow, and low energy. We wear it with the corners of our mouths ever so slightly turned down. We wear it in a hundred different ways, in a thousand different subtleties.

But the same is also true for the happiness. There may be a spring in our step, a slight smile on our face, a brightness in our eyes, that is completely unconscious yet incredibly visible. We may even glow.

And that is where I find myself. So many times recently I’ve been told that I’m glowing. And indeed I probably am. I think the glow, the happiness, comes from the inside and radiates out. It radiates out into our energy, into our thoughts, and even to our speech, to everything we do and say, conscious or otherwise.

Indeed now that I am older, and wiser, and deeper, and finer of a human being due to the good and bad times that I’ve been through, I understand the subtle contrast of Audrey Hepburn statement. And if happy girls are the prettiest girls, then I must be beautiful.

Life is short. Glow and be happy.