Guest Blogger: that you & I would dare to love ourselves & our bodies just the way we are By Sui at cynosure

At the risk of sounding like a downer, I’m going to admit that I didn’t have the best past week. I didn’t walk or run or really do much at all. I felt sluggish and tired and sick every day. I didn’t even feel like I had enough energy to walk down the street, let alone prepare for a 10k AIDS run in a month. I didn’t feel hungry or full (which threw me into a confusion of how much and how often to eat). I ate. I slept. I didn’t move. My body felt weighed down by a nameless fatigue, and I became tired of sleeping. My body was in a funk. An immobile, overfed funk.

And I’m looking at that same body, my body, in that shiny hunk of glass we stare at every day, and I’m astounded. I’m astounded that we, as people with beating hearts & inquisitive minds, can hate ourselves so easily, just looking at our reflections, witnessing the day-to-day changes that serves as proof that we’re alive and whole and changing constantly like the winds. I’m astounded that we can so easily write ourselves off as worthless or ugly, just because of the flesh on our bones… the remarkable, wonderful flesh that sustains our life, that keeps our organs protected and covered. I’m astounded that we torture ourselves so much… and over what? Over a few more inches of warmth that cradles our ability to sing and dance and laugh?

I’m astounded that we find it so simple to condemn the vessels that hold our minds and our hearts. That we can do it so thoughtlessly. That we do it almost as if we’re expected to, as if it’s a perfunctory exercise in being just like everyone else who hates & tortures their bodies… but for what?

It’s not “fat” or “flesh”! It’s a PART of us. It’s what powers our bodies. It’s our livelihood, our enjoyment of what great things the universe has to offer.

I look at my body… my imperfect, scarred, dimpled, BEAUTIFUL body… with all of its playful rolls and purple-pink stretchmarks and clear-white cellulite… and I love it. I really do. My body is NOT me, all of me, does not represent my worth or my joy or struggles… but my body IS what blesses me with the ability to walk, to move. The ability to hug the ones I love, smile, burst into ridiculous laughter at the most inopportune times, flap my arms wildly in an attempt to fly…

And I’m no longer astonished… that you & I would dare to LOVE ourselves & our bodies just the way we are.

Sui Solitaire is a lover, writer, and photographer who writes at cynosure about happy, healthy living, especially loving yourself, body image, food and eating, loving others, & loving our planet. If you like short stories, poetry, or bittersweet love, her recently-released book, Pleiades, is just for you!

You can read more articles or get them by RSS, follow her on Twitter @rvxn or Facebook, and check out her photography.

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