As Beautiful As You Feel

On my way home from my errands today I stopped at a local nail salon to get a quick manicure.  I have the world’s worst fingernails so I just get some nude polish so as not to draw attention to my nails.  I never expect any miracles from something as quick and cheep as a manicure, but perhaps I have missed the magic that some people feel from a shaping and polish.

I usually don’t get my nails done on Fridays because it is the busiest day at the salons, or so I’ve been told by one of the nail techs.  That wisdom held true today because the place I went to was packed.  As I was sitting at my assigned little manicure table another woman came and sat at the station next to me.  Since we were sitting facing a big wall of mirrors I could get a good look at her without having to turn my head.  When I say this young lady sitting next to me was the most beautiful human I have ever seen, live or in pictures, including every movie star in retouched photographs, I am not lying.

I stared at the reflection of the young woman with her wheat colored blond hair in a lose pony tail, cornflower blue eyes the size of quarters and lashes like giraffes and skin that was a warm glowing color, but was so smooth the sun had never aged it.  If you don’t already hate her she was wearing black Capri yoga pants and a pink skin tight yoga top that reveled a body that appeared curvy but devoid of body fat all at the same time.   How can this be?

She was so stunning I had to turn and stare right at her and I hope that my mouth was not hanging open in disbelief.  As we sat side-by-side having our tandem manicures I heard her say to the nice Asian woman painting her nails, “I feel so much more beautiful when I get my nails done.”

The first thought that came into my mind was, “Has this woman never looked in the mirror.  How much more beautiful could she get?  But then I thought about it.  She did not say, “I am more beautiful, but that she felt more beautiful.”  Since most of us don’t go around looking in a mirror all day we really don’t see what we look like all the time, except for our hands.  We look at our own hands inadvertently as we do our daily chores, like cooking, driving or typing.

Now to a regular person looking at this stunning specimen of a woman the difference between what she looked like with a manicure or without probably was a less than one percent change in her beauty, but to her it made a big difference.  I won’t go so far as to say getting a manicure makes me feel even close to beautiful, but it does make me feel not so bad about my short pitiful nails and wrinkly hands.  And if something that costs $13 can do that then it is a good thing even for the goddess next to me.