My Body
My body is strong, responsive and capable. It is curvy, and soft and wise. My body grew 3 babies, 3 whole lives inside of it, then brought them forth. It fed them for 9 months before they started solids. My body kept three other human beings alive as they grew.
With these arms I have cuddled sleeping babies. With these legs I have hiked up mountains. My lips help me whisper words of thanks and praise. These ears help me listen to the hurting and the joyful. My lap becomes a pillow and a resting place, a place of refuge. These eyes have witnessed creation in all its glory.
My body allows me to sing, and laugh, and cry, and sleep.
In this body I have finished races, competed in lacrosse, basketball, soccer, and volleyball. I have danced, sang and acted on stage. With this body I have jumped off cliffs and swam with sharks. Skiing down mountain tops or rafting down rivers would not be possible without this body I have been given.
My body has taken me to multiple continents. I have used it to build houses in Mexico and a library in Kenya. In it, I have fed the hungry and comforted the hurting.
I have walked on train tracks at sunset next to the ocean. I have paraglided off the Swiss Alps and parasailed over the Mediterranean Sea. It has experienced the depths of the oceans and the heights of the mountains.
I have explored and swam, embraced and wrestled, made love and eaten peaches as their juices dripped down my chin. My body is complex and vital and dynamic, and I love that about me.
I have enjoyed healthy teeth and eyesight. I heal quickly. It has mended broken bones and repaired deep cuts.
I am learning to shed body shame and embrace all this body does for me, for I am wonderfully and fearfully made. It has been through all of life with me – taken me all through life. Why dishonor what has been created just for me and equipped me to do every good thing in life – play, rest, serve, accomplish, create?
My body is beautiful, just the way it is, for it enables me to live life and live it abundantly. I am thankful for THIS body I have been given.
This post was inspired and some of the words borrowed (with permission) by my friend, Amy Kramer Hawks. She has been doing a radical self love challenge, and her Facebook post moved me to embrace all my body has done for me.
