A-Way-With-Words #005

A-Way-With-Words #005

“I see my scars as travellers, travellers that have been with me since that night, They latched on to me and they've been with me ever since. And I see them as memories because these scars are evidence of something that I had survived. They tell a little story of what I have lived through and what I have learned. And that's how I can look at them and say that it's quite beautiful.”

Aniek Nieuwenhuis’s life almost ended when she was nine. During a family camping holiday, Aniek suffered third-degree burns to 85 percent of her body after a gas cylinder exploded, trapping her in a burning cabin.?

It took more than 50 surgeries and a year off from school for Aniek’s body to recover, but the mental and emotional trauma took much longer. Unable to translate her experience and emotions through words, Aniek found her voice through art. “When I create I feel liberated - I feel relieved.”

Part of Aniek’s healing required a deep and personal evaluation of what it meant to be ‘beautiful.’?

“I used to think beauty was something that can be measured - that you're either?beautiful or not, but after I was burned it made me see people in a totally different way. I realised beauty was in the way that people frown or the way they pronounced a certain word or some of the gestures or just sometimes the way the mouth forms around a laugh. The little creases at the edges of someone's eyes. Just all these tiny little things - even little flaws that make the present just so gorgeous. I started noticing those tiny little things in myself as well. I would sometimes look at my fingers and say "well, you know the crooked little fingers but gosh, aren't they beautiful?”

Aniek’s message really hit home, because to me and so many others she is the epitome of beauty. A beauty unbeholden to society’s obsession with the physicality, in the absence of everything else that makes us unique. Beauty cannot be measured in wealth, power, a new body, bigger lips or flawless skin. A person's true beauty is not tangible - it's felt, experienced and radiated through through their contribution to the world - their sense of spirit, generosity, courage and curiosity.?

What if we all took a moment to champion ourselves and each other for just being part of humanity?

What if we looked at ours ourselves through a different lens, and loved our scars as if they were nuggets of gold to be treasured?

What if we stepped out of our own heads and looked up to notice those around us?

What if we made the time to listen and share stories that come from within?

I feel sure we would all discover more beauty than we ever imagined.