Well...tell us.
What did your body do today that brought you joy? Gratitude? Life?
Tell me about your body.
No. Don’t look in the mirror or run your hands over your hair and hips. I don’t want to know what it looks like. I want to know about it.
What has your body done today? Did you crack an egg for breakfast? Hold a mug in your hands and sip coffee? Did your thumbs move in tiny, precise ways to answer a text on your phone?
Did you fold clothes today? Did you balance a laundry basket on your hip as you climbed a staircase? Did you bend and reach to put things away?
Did you nurse a baby today? Warm a bottle and test the temperature with the skin of your wrist? Did you snuggle a child? Did you braid hair and tie shoes and button coats? Did you pack a lunches and backpacks and walk to school and laugh with your kids in the fresh air?
Did you dance today? Shimmy a little as you moved around the house to music, bop your head along with the radio in the car? Did you work your whole body to music in a Zumba class? Plug in headphones and go for a run with the beat as your rhythm? Did you grab your partner’s hands and dance for joy for no reason at all?
Did you sit in meetings today? Did you stand in front of a group and give a presentation, using your body to express authority and expertise? Did you sit at your desk, using your hands to make a computer and a phone reach through space and communicate your ideas to the world?
Did you sing today? Did you soothe a crying baby with your voice? Did you tell your partner how you felt? Did you tell a joke that made a child bust into a belly laugh? Did you laugh too?
Did you create something today? Did you hold a paintbrush or pen or knitting needles and turn raw materials into something you can see and touch?
Did you hug someone today? Did you kiss someone? Did you make love today?
Or maybe your body did none of these things today; maybe your body is not like the bodies that I describe. That’s OK. Tell me anyway: What did your body do today that brought you joy? Gratitude? Life?
I could tell you about my body. I don’t even need a mirror to complain about my hair, my hips, the dark spot on my cheek, the veins on my legs. I could tell you all of that but I don’t want to.
I want to tell you about the time I ran 13.1 miles. I want to tell you about my pregnancies and the children that came from them. I want to tell you about singing at the top of my lungs in my car the time I drove across the country. I want to tell you about the feeling of my husband’s lips on mine at our wedding.
I want to tell you about the way my fingers are flying across my keyboard to tell the story of my body and all the things it does.
So tell me about your body. Tell me all the things it can do. And tell yourself as well. Your body is amazing.
