Your hair looks amazing!
I love your shoes!
You look so skinny in that dress!
How often do we all hear — and give — compliments of this sort about physical appearance, clothing or accessories? My bet is, pretty often. But do they truly elate us or touch our soul?
These very compliments about my shoes, my dress, my hair, were intended to make me feel beautiful and supported at the first major social event I went to after the second of two surgeries. I was deeply grateful for my friends’ and coworkers’ unfailingly kind words, yet they contrasted starkly with how I was feeling inside. I’d barely begun to climb the thousand-mile staircase to being me again. I was wearing a heart monitor under my cocktail dress. Instead of the busy work schedules, charity events, book club meetings and lunch dates everybody was chatting about, my calendar was filled with medical appointments, blood tests and follow-up exams.
All my life I’ve loved dressing up. The look on my husband’s face when he sees me done up and ready to take on the world with him is indescribable. We both needed this party. So, yes, I’d done my face and hair. I gritted my teeth and eased myself into shapewear and a cocktail dress. It took everything I had to wedge my feet into my favorite electric-blue heels, the ones that used to make me feel like Wonder Woman.
Looking back, I can’t help pondering the fact that we’ve all been trained to call out the superficial: clothes, shoes, hair — everything that’s fleeting, unimportant and far more changeable than anyone likes to think about.
One important example: We need to do away with the idea that noticing weight loss is a compliment. I can tell you that doesn’t play well in a hospital where people are emaciated, battling chemo. If you’re already self-conscious about your weight, it’s painful to have it be the center of conversation.
We each have a multitude of characteristics that make us shine and deserve to be celebrated. These qualities are lasting and don’t change day to day. Instead of focusing on the physical, let’s practice honoring our loved ones by telling them how their presence brings joy.
You have such a good heart!
Your laughter is contagious.
It’s so much fun to be around you!
I love the wisdom you bring to a conversation.
These are the types of compliments I love to give and receive. They lift me up and enhance my self-esteem. All the external stuff is fleeting and far less important.
Health is inclusive. Body and soul are stuck with each other, like it or not. The separation of body and soul is the very definition of death. The permanent, meaningful things that make each of us beautiful are with us through it all. These are the true compliments.
I invite you to go past “skin deep” when recognizing people’s qualities and notice what’s emanating from the soul.
About the Author
Born and raised in Mexico (Monterrey and Mexico City), author, art collector and philanthropist Lorena Junco Margain studied visual arts at Universidad de Monterrey before co-founding the Distrito14 gallery as a platform to amplify emerging Mexican artists. Soon afterward, she co-founded and curated the Margain-Junco Collection with her husband, Eduardo Margain, to support emerging artists, foster the art scene in Mexico and promote awareness of Mexican art internationally. She also played an instrumental role in launching the 2015 Shaped in Mexico contemporary art exhibition in London. In 2008, Junco Margain was forced to flee Mexico with her husband, children, parents, siblings, nieces and nephews due to concerns for their safety. Today she lives with her family in Austin, Texas. The memoir “On the Way to Casa Lotus” is her first book.
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