If Jacob was right and clothes were costumes and makeup a mask, then our attitudes and habits must be our shields.

There is real comfort in being quiet.

Physical beauty wasn't the same as True Beauty, any more than pretty ugly meant truly ugly or Magnetic North meant True North.

What was so miraculous about a relationship that was based more on my gratitude than on mutual self respect?

Maybe we don't have the same definition of about what's beautiful. So define it. Define true beauty.

What would it be like to look in the mirror and actually accept what you see? Not loathe the reflection, or despise it, or be resigned to it? But to like it?

A pathfinder's job is hard enough — blazing trails where there are none, guided by nothing but hearsay and gut. While you're hacking your way through bracken, worrying about lurking beasts, all you can do is hope you had chosen the right direction.