Body Image

I came across this blog entry and just couldn't not post it here. I think I'll let this excerpt speak for itself. The context is that this is woman who wrote a piece about her sensitivity to her body image after the birth of her kids (a son and a set of twins). In particular, she felt uncomfortable about her new squishy belly. Her son asks her about her belly:

So, in the moment when Ben stood in front of me and the magic happened, I spoke not what I should, not what I wished to believe, but what I deeply felt for once to be true. “Is my belly kind of squishy? Kind of soft?” I ask. “Yes!” he says. “Do you see these red roads on my belly? Are you curious about those?” I ask. “Yes!” he says. “Do you want to know what those feel like?”  I ask. “Yes!” he says. Then I take his little finger and trace it along one of my stretch marks and ask, “Do you know what these are?” “No.” he says. “These are the lines of a story. Do you know what the story is about?” “What?” he asks.  “These lines tell the story of Isaac and Ben and Elijah. They tell about how you grew inside me and how I stretched to make room for you because I was so glad you would be my boy. Aren’t they beautiful?” “Yes!” he answered. 

What a beautiful way to think of your body - as a story about what you have accomplished and been through in your life. The full essay is beautiful and well-written and is located on the blog The Actual Pastor entitled "These are the lines of a story" by Mary Martin Wiens.