Thank you, To My Body

AS SEEN ON ELEPHANT JOURNAL

So I literally ran out of the shower to write this down…That’s how fleeting gratitude to my body can be. Like a hurricane fast and furious, I thought “I’d better get this down, make it permanent, so that I can find this gratitude more often.”

This is a thank you to my body. I realize that I don’t thank my body nearly enough. You know what I do?

I criticize it, I put it down, I tell it where it could be better, smaller, firmer, darker, lighter, softer, stronger, smoother etc. You see where that’s headed right?

But today I tell it none of those things.

Today I tell my body a big, fat, stinking, thank you.

I’m telling my body thank you for being exactly as you are. Thank you for being strong when you need to be, thank you for being functional when you need to be, thank you for being a vessel for who I am on the inside.

Thank you for being a vehicle for my soul. Literally you take me from point A to point B so  I can share who I am and what I have to offer with the world. That alone deserves a really big thank you.

To all those little parts (and maybe not so little parts) that are really difficult to thank–I want to give you an extra big thank you.

To my thighs that jiggle when I walk, Thank you for being strong enough, able enough, to walk me to the bathroom every morning when I wake up.

Thank you to my skin, with all its freckles, scars, stretch marks, hair, paleness and dark spots. I love you for all of that. Thank you for protecting me against an external world that can do me harm. Thank you for encasing my muscles, my organs, my soul. Thank you for being smooth and soft, sturdy and rough, in exactly the ways you are.

To my arms that may or may not flap when I’m excited–thank you for being strong enough to pull me, push me, and swing by my side every day.

To my delicious, curvaceous, bootylicious, booty thank you for bearing my weight whenever I decide to rest. Thank you for being my locomotion when I run, sprint, jump, and rise. And an extra thank you for enticing my husband to show his affections, you know I gotchu.

Thank you to my chest that may or may not be large enough, soft enough, firm enough, to meet the expectations placed upon me and the expectations I place upon myself. Today you are exactly enough. I thank you today for being a strong place to keep my heart beating, for being a soft place to cradle my love ones.

Here comes the hardest thank you, thank you to my stomach.

Oh yeah I went there.

You and I have had our good days and bad days, and today I wish to grant you and myself a big thank you.

Thank you for being my core, my strength, to help me rise when I get knocked down, to help me sit up when I’m falling. Thank you for twisting and shouting when my body needs sustenance. And thank you for being a little bit extra soft. Because when little ones run up to me, embracing me screaming, “Auntie Taylor!” — I know their heads have a soft place to rest. When they bury their little faces into my not-so-little-pouch, it must be pretty comfy.

Thank you to my entire body for functioning, being, exactly how it should be.

Today is my ode to you, my body, as you are.

And not as I think you should be. Or as I may want you to be. But just as you are, right now.

You’re exactly right.

Today (and I hope every day) I thank you, I love you a little bit extra. Incase I forget, this is here as a reminder.

Now let’s go dance the day away together, shall we?