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Sociologist Tressie McMillan Cottom has written extensively about the construction of beauty. She argues that the way beauty is most often conceptualized in the dominant culture is as that which has aesthetic value that can be capitalized upon. And the way this plays out is that a few people profit off of a beauty standard that is so narrow that the majority of people could only achieve it with great expenditures of money.

A couple of months ago, the phenomenal pop artist Lizzo did an interview with Harper’s Bazaar magazine in which she said, “…what I’m doing is stepping into my confidence and my power to create my own beauty standard. And one day that will just be the standard.”

Can you imagine that a day when the standard of beauty is the standard that one sets for one’s self? We are going to be nurturing that kind of beauty in ourselves this month, the kind that emanates from within, and is unique and evolving and personal. We’re also going to be nurturing our own ability to find beauty in the everyday. And finally, we will be creating beauty, too, because the act of creating something beautiful is a kind of nurturing of one’s self, too.

Khalil Gibran says that beauty is “a light in the heart.” A constant in all our Soulful Home packets is the intention for you to find something within that nurtures that light in the heart of you, the parent, guardian, and very special adult in the life of a UU child. May your own beauty, the beauty of the love you share, and the beauty of our shared word be balm for the spirit this month!