Smoke Follows Beauty

At a camp full of girls, we would gather around a fire every night to boil some kind of protein/carbohydrate mush and heat up some koolaid as we were in the middle of nowhere, Wisconsin. The common joke every time a girl would get smoke in her face from the cooking fire and start coughing up a lung was, "smoke follows beauty!"

A few days ago, I saw this incredible post of photography portraying models and their mothers, found here. Some are cuddling, others are standoffish, others could be perfect clones of each other. 

This one is by far my favorite:

Then there's more photos, like this one:

The photo shoot begs the questions, does smoke follow beauty? What is beauty, anyway?

There is a quote out there attributed to the beauty icon herself, Audrey Hepburn. It reads,

"For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others; for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness; and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone."

I look at these photographs, and I see truly beautiful women. I also see women who lost the meaning of beauty somewhere along the way- mothers and daughters alike. I wonder, which mothers understand what beauty is, and what did they tell their daughters when they were growing up? Which ones made sacrifices for the right reasons, and which ones for the wrong ones? Are they proud of their daughters? Jealous? Are they still chasing the smoke of outward beauty, or does their strength of character shine through?

I look at the daughters as well, those who are proud of their mothers or embarrassed by them, those that want to be close or don't. What words passed between them? What glances? What hugs and kisses or lack thereof? If there's damage, can it be repaired? What will the daughters tell their own daughters some day?

We are human beings, built and formed by our relationships with one another, and the values we choose to accept or ignore. I honor the mothers out there that have encouraged their daughters to be confident, loving world-changers, values that will be passed down to their grandchildren and great grandchildren. The moms who defined beauty as more than how long your eyelashes are or the size of your thighs, and taught that it might have something to do with love and kindness. In the wise, wise words of a currently famous boy band,

"that's what makes you beautiful."