The Jenna Devin Blog

Monday, June 23, 2014

Dancing to the Songs in my Head



               
There’s something magical about the effect that dancing has over me.  I’ve never been a very great dancer, but I highly enjoy it.  When I dance, I feel like I’m floating on air and am filled with a sense of ecstasy.  In this moment, I am completely me.  It’s an activity that involves both the body and the soul, so I become in tune with the both of them and the two become one. 

Dancing didn’t always feel this way for me, however.  I used to be much more self-conscious about how I danced, especially in junior high and high school, but once I graduated from high school and went to college, I realized that I didn’t care what other people thought of me.  So what if they thought I was a horrible dancer?  I mean, they’re right, but being talented is not what dancing is about.  It’s about the pure joy, the wonderful feelings that dancing brings.  Growing up helped me realize that I don’t have to please everyone in order to be happy.  The only person I need to please is myself.  As long as I do what I love and what I think is right, that’s all that matters.


When I dance, the whole room disappears.  All I can see is the world twirling around me, the world suddenly so bright and vivid, and all I hear and feel is the music.  Even if the song I’m dancing to isn’t one that I like all too much, dancing makes the song much more amazing.  When I’m feeling any strong emotion (happy, sad, angry, or lonely), dancing can always help me work through it.  The music becomes me, and all of my troubles disappear.  Oh, the wonderful power of music and dance.

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Unfolding a World of Optimism



         You look at someone and are just filled with a blissful aching of unconditional love for him, or you see him do some random thing or look a certain way, and you think to yourself, “Man, I love you so much!”  Or, perhaps you’re taking a walk outside and suddenly feel a deep connection with and wonder of everything in the world around you.  Do you ever have these moments of pure, unbridled intensity?
               
         These moments used to happen merely occasionally for me, but ever since I fell in love with Marshall, these moments occur daily.  Each and every day I find something new to love about Marshall, and this in turn makes the whole world even lovelier.  There’s something about love that completely changes a person’s perspective and potentially a person’s whole identity.  The world takes a much more cheerful and beautiful sheen, and things that seemed unremarkable before falling love now have become absolutely stunning.  Instead of viewing the world pessimistically, this person begins to unfold a world of optimism.  
                
          A person in love is a person of constant, beautiful change.  By becoming very close to another person and learning all about that person’s skills, flaws, quirks, beliefs, and values, you begin to compare and contrast yourself with your lover, and you reconsider your own beliefs and values.  I think that this is a wonderful, amazing process…and essential.  I believe that in order to truly know yourself and what you believe in, you have to love another person with skills, flaws, quirks, beliefs, and values that are different from yours. 

We can learn so much from one another.  No two people are the same, and no one has all of the answers.  Truly there is no right or wrong but only that in which the majority of us agrees to be right or wrong.  By getting to know, respect, and love a person for everything that he or she is, I believe we are able to get closer to a collective, divine Truth.  For love is the truest Truth of all.






                
        

Monday, June 9, 2014

Beauty


I really dislike mean, judgmental people, and I particularly hate it when people say things like what’s quoted in the above picture.  There is no such thing as ugly, in my opinion; it’s all in our minds, and each mind sees beauty and ugliness in a different way.  When a person claims that a girl is ugly and can’t believe that she has a boyfriend, they are being very unfairly judgmental.  Even for this person who thinks that this girl is physically ugly, there is beauty to be found in her soul.  Every person is unique and that makes every person amazingly beautiful.  So a girl doesn’t fit the physical standards of what most men think is attractive (thin, busty, flawless skin, gorgeous hair, etc…)?...So what?  Physical characteristics are not what truly matters.  What is most beautiful is the girl’s personality, her flaws and quirks, her soul.  That is what should be focused on: the internal characteristics of a person.

I’m not one of those who doesn’t practice what she preaches either.  I truly use this viewpoint of focusing on internal characteristics in my own life.  When I first began to converse with my boyfriend Marshall, I had no idea what he looked like.  I’d signed up for a trial membership of eHarmony, so I wasn’t able to look at any pictures of what he looked like, but that didn’t matter to me.  What was so amazingly beautiful and unique about this experience was that I fell in love with Marshall’s personality and soul before I physically met him.  Every day that I spend with him and learn more about him now, the more attractive he becomes for me.  It’s all about the soul.  If you fall for someone’s soul, you’ll begin to fall in love with their outer appearances as well.  You figure out that all of the little quirks and imperfections about that person are what make him or her so perfect in your eyes.  

So, before you judge someone else, remember that true beauty is in the soul, and everyone is beautiful in their own little way.