Sunkissed

"Four things I would have been the better without: love, curiosity, freckles, and doubt." ~Dorothy Parker

I don't tan.

As much as I would love to sport beautiful skin like that of my peers, I simply do not possess the talent.

The closest I have ever been to "tanned" was the summer that I was eighteen...and only after spending hours in a tanning bed to lightly change my skin tone for my aunt's wedding.

I simply do not tan.

I burn. And I freckle.

The freckles have been my "gift" since I was very little. A light smattering of these tiny brown spots have covered my body from nose-tip to toes ever since I was old enough to gaze at my own pale arms in wonder at the marks I beheld.

And now, today, after spending a day in the gaze of the sun, my nose and cheeks are the faintest hint of red, and my face and arms now sport even more of these all-too familiar "beauty marks."

Freckle-faced dreamer
Photo by: DramaticElegance

Perhaps it has something to do with my "Snow White" complexion and hair...or maybe it is the barest reminder of the redheads in my family, and my own natural auburn highlights that compliment my own chocolate brown locks.

Or maybe I'm just over-analyzing the natural pigmentation of my own skin.

Either way, freckles are my own summertime souvenirs.

They are graffiti that I wear...summer was here.

They are my sunkisses....pastel skin and watercolour beauty marks.

And honestly, I wouldn't have it any other way.


Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson