You Are So Beautiful.

“The innocent and the beautiful have no enemy but time.”

-William Butler Yeats

 

This is definitely one of the most adorable little girl pictures I've ever seen. She was photographed around 1900 in Pennsylvania, the very picture of innocence. What a precious image . . . I love the way she's tenderly cradling that rose.

I have no idea who she was, or what her life was like. I like to think she grew into an exquisite young woman who had the world at her feet. She certainly looks like she might have.

“A witty woman is a treasure; a witty beauty is a power.”

This is my all-time favorite beauty quotation. It is attributed to George Meredith, a brilliant English poet and novelist who 

lived from 1828 to 1909.

George was really smart. I'll bet he got on with the ladies very well.

That's "Beauty's Altar" you see above. It was pretty racy in 1910 (still is). I'll bet old George would have deeply appreciated her wit if he'd still been around. 

Of course, George also said this: “I expect that Woman will be the last thing civilized by Man.”

I will politely ignore that. 

This is actress Helen Mirren at the age of sixty-four (two years ago).

"How old would you be if you didn't know how old you were?"  ~Satchel Paige

That's another favorite of mine, and my ninety-five-year-old grandmother's, as well.  I think Helen thinks she's about forty, and more power to her - she's right. She is out-and-out gorgeous. Russell Brand, of all people, has admitted to a teeny obsession with her.

And he's married to Katy Perry. No slouch in the beauty department, either.

Everything is beautiful in its own way
Like a starry summer night
Or a snow-covered winter's day
And everybody's beautiful, in their own way
Under God's Heaven
The world's gonna find a way

- Ray Stevens

Ray said it very well.

 Check out this poster from 1896. 

Rice's "Beautiful Evangeline"

 was indeed beautiful.

I know a lot of beautiful women. I know a lot of beautiful, witty women.

Many of them are in my own family. I would like to post photos of every single one, but that's impossible.

So . . . as space and photo availability permit, here are a few. (If you are related to me and not pictured here, it's because you're just too beautiful to appear in public.)

Obviously, I count some very beautiful women among my friends, too. You know who you are. Like I said, just too beautiful to appear in public (and too numerous to picture on one page).

Here's to amazing, wonderful, pretty, witty, ageless, inspiring, smart, funny, creative, loving, warm, terrific women everywhere.

I leave you with an eloquent tribute by Alabama's very own Taylor Hicks. 

You Are So Beautiful  

Love from Delta.