I know I promised a three-part series, but I just want to wrap up with these few final thoughts:
1. If ever there is a time in life when it should be easy to love my body, it is now. Is all this love simply because I'm in good shape and have finally figured out how to work with curly hair? That is definitely a part of it. BUT. There are deep shifts in my thinking and in my heart that I think might (just maybe) last longer than my amateur-athletic career. As my wrinkles deepen and my fat deposits grow, I am hoping that these truths will have taken root enough to come along with whatever the future holds for this body.
2. You all have been so surprising and encouraging. Thank you for that. Honestly. I am terribly awkward at receiving compliments, and have blathered on (my new favourite term) on more than one occasion when I've felt embarrassed and vulnerable, realizing that I actually wrote things about how I view my body, and you really read them. But without a doubt, it has affirmed to me that these are conversations that need to happen, for my own sake, if not for all of us. Let's be real! Let's speak the truth and hear the truth and be encouraged, even when we're awkward.
3. There are a few other blog entries that I re-read as I wrote this series, and I wanted to share them because in my head, at least, they are related and relevant:
4. For all of you who are new here, welcome! I can't promise that every entry will be as exciting as the last few, but I can tell you that there will be other entries, and some of them will be about big topics like this. Others will be about books I've read, or about school (yay, seminary!), or about the funny things my niece and nephews say. Most recently, my baby nephew saw a photo of me and started moo-ing like a cow. That's always flattering. Granted, I DID spend the majority of our last visit making farm animal noises.
My next post will be about music, because I haven't said much about music lately, and it is time for what has become an annual tradition...
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| This is my niece. Because she's cute & we've had enough pictures of me recently. |
1. If ever there is a time in life when it should be easy to love my body, it is now. Is all this love simply because I'm in good shape and have finally figured out how to work with curly hair? That is definitely a part of it. BUT. There are deep shifts in my thinking and in my heart that I think might (just maybe) last longer than my amateur-athletic career. As my wrinkles deepen and my fat deposits grow, I am hoping that these truths will have taken root enough to come along with whatever the future holds for this body.
2. You all have been so surprising and encouraging. Thank you for that. Honestly. I am terribly awkward at receiving compliments, and have blathered on (my new favourite term) on more than one occasion when I've felt embarrassed and vulnerable, realizing that I actually wrote things about how I view my body, and you really read them. But without a doubt, it has affirmed to me that these are conversations that need to happen, for my own sake, if not for all of us. Let's be real! Let's speak the truth and hear the truth and be encouraged, even when we're awkward.
3. There are a few other blog entries that I re-read as I wrote this series, and I wanted to share them because in my head, at least, they are related and relevant:
I have come to this realization/belief: there is a difference between loneliness and what I call "only-ness." Onlyness is the reality that only I experience my life, and that there will always be a level of my personhood that is inaccessible/viewed differently/misunderstood by others.
When I look forward a dozen years, I have hope that I will measure my beauty not by the softness of my belly or size of my pipes but by the increase in my laugh lines and the scars that will tell stories of giving and receiving love, of sacrifice and patience.
My friends have been victims. I have been a victim. It isn't okay. And it isn't okay to think that the conversation is simply about crimes against women. The conversation is huge; it's about what it means to be a woman, what it means to treat women as equals in all areas of life, and what cultural views of women need to be left behind once and for all.
4. For all of you who are new here, welcome! I can't promise that every entry will be as exciting as the last few, but I can tell you that there will be other entries, and some of them will be about big topics like this. Others will be about books I've read, or about school (yay, seminary!), or about the funny things my niece and nephews say. Most recently, my baby nephew saw a photo of me and started moo-ing like a cow. That's always flattering. Granted, I DID spend the majority of our last visit making farm animal noises.
My next post will be about music, because I haven't said much about music lately, and it is time for what has become an annual tradition...
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