Talking to cousin after a long time felt great. She was asking how my holidays to the beach were and while describing how brilliant they were I asked her if she likes beaches.
'Only people with great bodies like the beaches' she said.
It got me thinking, what are Great bodies? Are the bodies that help us live, in fact the only thing that makes us alive in its literal sense, do they really need to justify themselves? The fact that we are alive isn't enough for it to be a 'great body'? The fact that we taste,smell, smile,laugh, cry, scratch our backs, burp,feel pain, feel pleasure, walk, see, giggle, travel, be happy, get angry, dig our noses, breath through them, get sick and get better, the fact fact that we can do so much and more isn't enough for it to be great!!! It isn't good enough??? Why does it have to be measured in terms of its size shape and color? Why can't we start seeing it as beautiful, period. Since when did we get the audacity to judge our greatest strength and our only instrument to life??
A friend recently shared that she would never leave her home without lipstick and eyeliner. She said she wouldn't feel confident. Another one said that she has to get back to her pre-pregnancy size in order to feel confident again. I, like an idiot forgot to carry my one piece swimming costume, the one that hid my stomach flab and pregnancy stretch marks to our beach holiday. A relative of mine told me that she doesn't wear shorts because she thinks her legs are too fat.
No,I did not just share random facts and feelings of myself and people around me in the above paragraph. I was just giving examples of how ungrateful and unaccepting we are about what eventually just needs to be "a great body" for it keeps us alive. Why is our sense of confidence dependent on a shade of lipstick on the size of our shirt? I am not saying that it is not good to work on a healthy body, all I am saying is that our obsession with a 'great body' is making us sick in our minds. It is making us more judgmental, critical and ungrateful. We look for acceptance from outside, from the people around us who can't even except or like themselves as they are.
Let's change that now. I declare right here to the world and my friend that I love her, even without her lipstick, even when she wakes up in the morning and is wearing her spectacles instead of contact lenses.
I love my other friend, regardless of her achieving her pre-pregnancy weight or not.
I love my relative with short fat legs.
I love the flab on my tummy and my stretch marks because they mean that my 'great body' produced the greatest miracle it could- my baby.
And I also declare that beaches are for everyone to love.
