Lessons from those who’ve gone before (16)

“As I age, I notice my body doing something, and I want to see what it’s doing. I don’t want to interfere with that. It knows something I don’t. It’s like being pregnant. You don’t know how to age, except intellectually. But your body knows. I think I first noticed this when I thought about menopause because I saw that my body was getting rid of everything it needed to produce another person and retaining that which was necessary to support one person. It was a process I was observing, not directing. It gives you some respect for the wisdom of the body.”- Feminist Gloria Steinem

Was watching a video some days ago when someone commented on the fact that women are more often than not born with the ability to grow a child from a zygote, to an embryo, to a foetus, and then feed that child post-delivery with food somehow manufactured from inside them, and have that zygote grow into a functional adult human being. It really is a wonder in and of itself.

As if that isn’t mind-blowing enough, despite all the advancements in technology we have today, body parts aren’t just cut off because medical personnel feel like it; they tend to do their best to remove only what is absolutely necessary so the individual can have some quality of life afterwards… God really created the perfect machine.

The media, unintentionally or otherwise, sells a picture that is for the most part completely unrealistic when it comes to standards for bodily appreciation. In many cases, those unrealistic standards become reinforced as societal norms or expectations. Meanwhile, it appears most bodies didn’t get the memo.

So, learn to appreciate the body you currently have. Think of how magnificent it has been to this point. Not necessarily because someone, somewhere in the world, has it worse, but because our bodies help us participate in the interestingness that is life itself.

Yes, I know that sickness, disability, and deformity suck, but someone once called disability a different ability. Whatever body you have, choose joy. You’ve got this!

Here’s to you and your very wonderfully made body.

“I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.”- Psalms 139:14