A Message to My Skin

Dear Skin:

.

I know I haven’t always been the best. I have spent hours in the summer sun without protection.  I’ve scraped my knees and bruised my shins and received countless papercuts over the years.  I’ve had glue stuck to my fingertips, dirt caked into the soles of my feet, makeup left on my face overnight. I’ve been burnt to a crisp and dried to a flake. I’ve had rashes and pimples and everything in between, and often have made matters worse with scratching and peeling and

picking, picking, picking.

.

I also know I haven’t always been the kindest. I’ve said mean things about you and to you. Out loud or with my thoughts or actions. I’m not sure which hurts more, or which is more destructive.

.

I have spent countless dollars and hours trying to cover you up. To hide you from the world. To give the illusion you are something you are not. I have researched how to precisely disguise all your healing and growth and progress. How to flawlessly mask your authenticity and humanness. How to be the opposite of real, of life.

.

I’m so sorry it’s taken me this long to realize how wrong I’ve been. How mean I’ve been to you. How much damage I have caused, physically and mentally. You deserve so much more.

.

I promise to be better. To help you heal. To wear sunscreen every single day. To stop popping pimples and peeling scabs. To change my outlook and mindset. To nourish you by living a healthy and organic life. To only put the best products on you, to take my time massaging them

in and to be delicate. To never sleep in makeup. To stop mean talk. I promise to appreciate you for making me. I promise to embrace my individuality, instead of forcing you to conform to an unrealistic, impossible, harmful ideal.

.

So thank you, Skin! Thank you for literally holding me together. For keeping me whole. For protecting me. For giving me touch and for showing me what it’s like to be touched. For using signals to warn me if something I’m doing is wrong, irritating or unhealthy. For always being there, even as I grow and morph and stretch and squeeze and scar and become.

.

Thank you my protector and friend for forgiving, again and again and again.

.

Love, 

Me