So a dear friend just sent me the best article. It was all about how social media has allowed us to showcase a picture perfect life that is perhaps far from the truth. This friend then thanked me for always sharing the real life pics along with all the good ones and I could not help but think to myself, do I really do that? Do I always show my true life, even the things I may be embarrassed about? … It only took a glance at my current fb profile picture and banner image to realize the answer was a hard and real NO.

Ok, so here are the images I am referring to …

Now, do not get me wrong. These are ‘real’ images, they embrace my love of my family and the importance of that in my life. So I could justify by saying, THAT was the reason I featured these images right? Well, I COULD say that – I could say anything at all … it is called ‘free will’ – but there is something much more important to me than just showing the world my family matters (in the way the world wants to see it) – and that is being real, I mean really REAL.

So, to stay true to my burning desire to be super candid, beyond transparent and really REAL with the world, ie you .. ie ME … I want to showcase a couple other images to balance out those above 😉 … and yes, I proudly stuck my watermark on these too 😉

Here they are …

Below, we have FK jumping on her favorite Christmas gift surrounded by our tree with handmade ornaments, very cluttered.. ie messy counter tops, paint on the wall by the brilliant artist of the house, letters stuck to the wall creating a grand word I have not learned to pronounce yet … and dirt, yes I am sure there is plenty of dirt in this image too. This is about as real as it gets for us … but scroll on down and you’ll find more 😉

Below we have an image taken by my 5 yr old daughter herself. It is a photo of a beautiful design called “Green Colored Freckles and Moles” … on momma’s back. (I must admit this is a great way to get a back massage – to turn your five year old loose with a washable marker on your back – ahhhh)

You see the thing of it is, all four of these pictures embrace who our family is. The top two may paint the picture of ‘love’ that the world thinks is pretty, but the bottom too embrace just as much love – heck maybe more?

I want people to view my pictures and not only feel the love I have for my life, but more so feel brave enough to live, and love, their life in the way they truly desire. Sometimes the way we crave to love and live life is not at all what we think society thinks is pretty, but this is not about what someone else thinks – this is about love and life and being REAL about it. .. In my opinion, if your life is not harming another then you should be PROUD to live it, and love it, in the way you feel is right for YOU.

Something truly beautiful happens when you start to live this way. You start to naturally WANT others to be happy too. You naturally want others to feel this love, peace and freedom that you do. You find yourself being kinder to others, saying uplifting words to them – you start to be a better person, because you start to become the person you truly are – WHICH IS A BETTER PERSON. You. All of us, are wonderfully incredible people as our true selves. It is the fear of owning that true self that sends many to doing and saying terrible things.

I know I have seen photos of my friends and thought to myself – “Wow, I could never take that good of a picture, look how perfect they all are? That is not me.”

That is NOT how I want to make people feel.

My hope by posting these additional photos is that maybe you will be inspired to give yourself the freedom to BE what makes you happy – messiness, green moles and all. 🙂

MMJ