A Letter to my Body

I saw this over on Miss Britt's blog who in turn saw it on BlogHer. It's a love letter to your body. Now I don't know of any woman that truly loves her body. Every woman can find a self proclaimed flaw, even women with the measurements of 36 26 36. I know that women of all ages; young, mature, middle aged, adolescent and girls as young as 6 years old suffer from perceived body image issues and I think this is the perfect initiative to put yourself out there to try and get over that. By doing this maybe someone will read it and decide their bod ain't so bad. It inspired Miss Britt to do an eloquent letter which she then inspired Avitable to do a tongue in cheek letter and hell, if they could put themselves out there, I can too.

Dear Body,

I've not always had the greatest relationship with you. We have never been thin but I never realized it until I started to develop. In the fourth grade. Suddenly seemingly overnight you started to change. I shot up and was the tallest kid in my class. I seemed to tower over the other kids. What's funny about that is that I never really grew much taller, I'm 5"4" today and getting shorter. I hated the fact that my breasts were growing. No one else's were. The idea of wearing a bra was awful. I didn't want to. What finally convinced me was in fifth grade a fourth grade boy said to me, "boy those things jiggle when you walk." That's all it took, I wore one 24/7.

My dear body, while everyone was still flat and straight as a board you became curvy in all the right places. You gave me the hips and butt to go with the breasts. I thought I was fat. If I could only have that body again. Fat I was not. It just seemed that way because I looked so much lusher than the other girls. With this body that you had given me came the unwanted attention from boys and men. To me it was embarrassing to have the opposite sex stare at me with "that" look on their face. Growing into my teenage years was painful. I have never been one that likes to be the center of attention and trust me, with a shape like mine you garnered it. By now the girls were starting to catch up with me in some areas but not all. I did everything I could to hide you by covering up with baggy shirts and slouching. I could have had many, many boyfriends but lived in fear that they were only interested in me for you body. I once had a health teacher in high school that tell me I looked like I could go to Vegas and get a job as a showgirl.

We got through high school you and me but the feelings of dislike didn't leave. Even as a young woman in a professional office I once overheard two men talking about my "boobs and ass" after I walked by them. Unbeknown to them, I went into the cubicle next to them. You and I decided at that moment this shit would end. I walked into their office and told them that I never wanted to hear that again. Other men when speaking with me would stare at our breasts. I had enough of that too and I would tell them to look at my face, my chest doesn't talk. Honestly I didn't care if I embarrassed them. Some had the good grace to be embarrassed, others not so much.

Eventually we found the man that loved the mind and body and spirit of us. You produced two beautiful children that when I look at them today I'm still in awe of what you created. Although you were never the same after having those children. Things were lower, areas not as firm in places and as time went by, body of mine, you started to gain weight. Oh we were still curvy but with larger curves.

Today at age 49 I am finally at peace with you. I accept that I will never be thin, that I will have a large chest and a round but still firm ass. I finally understand that I can look professional or sexy in clothes that fit well, that this body doesn't have to be covered, camouflaged and under wraps. I thank my husband for loving me mind, body and soul. I like a line from the movie Hairspray said Mother Maybelle (Queen Latifa) says "why have a twig when you can climb the whole tree."

Now comes the part where Britt and Avitable posted a naked picture of themselves. I can't bring myself to do that but here is a picture showing the cleavage that has been the bane of my existence along with the a picture of my behind.