This is Day 15 of the Positive 100, a countdown to Rare Disease Day 2014 and an exercise in being positive despite it all.
Oh our bodies. We love to hate them. For a lot of us, just being born and raised in our society has created plenty of issues. We are never skinny enough, tall enough, blonde enough, tan enough, bootylicious enough. (Yes, I just said bootylicious). Are nose is a little off. Our fingers are too short. Eyes too close together.
And then on top of it some of us have to throw in actually defective parts. And it becomes so very easy to hate the shell that you live in. To wish for new parts. To focus on what is wrong.
I do a pretty excellent job of hating my body. How not skinny it is. How broken it is. I usually hate it so fast and publicly that I tell people reasons they shouldn’t compliment how I look. Or I tell them how it is my body’s fault that I had to miss a commitment just so they can hate my body too.
I hate that I have a condition that you can’t see. I hate that I can never eat a can of spaghetti-os again. I hate that when I draw, I feel like there are ski gloves on my hands. I hate that my body hates me. And every single time I try to think about what I like about it, I go down this vile path.
But if I stop and think about it, this body, despite its defects, is pretty darn awesome. I think. Maybe. So, I am going to find 15 things about it that are good. Great even. Just to remind myself that I should love it a lot more than I do.
- My blue eyes
- My naturally (dirty) blonde hair
- My pretty awesome taste buds
- My nose and the bump on it from breaking it when I was 4
- Long nail beds mean I can keep my nails short and they still look long.
- Tiny wrists that mean I can wear kids bracelets
- Oddly shaped toes that were made for pointy-toed shoes
- Long legs
- Bionic spine
- Still walking without a cane or walker.
- The brain that keeps it all going.
- Porcelain skin that the dermatologist told me was some of the least damaged she had ever seen on someone with my coloring & age.
- Freckles.
- The birthmark that is shaped like Ireland on my left arm.
- Scars that prove I am a warrior.
And if I need another reminder that we should love our bodies, I will watch this burlesque dancer turn Katy Perry’s Roar into an anthem for loving your body.
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