--Desiderius Erasmus
This quote has me thinking about my physical body and those I see others using. I'm pretty OK with myself mentally, emotionally and spiritually, but my physical body has been an issue all my life. From the time I went to first grade, I have been labelled "fat." My mom did nearly everything she could to encourage weight loss, while setting unlimited amounts of excellent food in front of me to eat. She was not overweight--I realized many years later that she was a practicing bulimic. The long term effects of that eventually led to her death at 61. I am so grateful she did not offer me that deadly practice.
My current challenge relative to being OK in my body is wearing a sleeveless top. Let's just say I have more body than I care for on the lower side of my upper arms. At my age, it's fairly wrinkly. OK, I'll stop. I promise to wear the top when it gets to 90 degrees on the golf course.
I've been to Jamaica several times. At the beach, you see all sizes and shapes of bodies with assorted coverings. These trips have inspired two sayings from me. 1. If a man looks down and he can't see his Speedo, he should not be wearing one!! 2. Where on the planet can you buy a bikini that large?!?!? Other folks' willingness to "let it all hang out," so to speak, makes me think a lot about body image. I swim a lot at the local YMCA, and my branch has mostly older folks who wear modest swimwear. Imagine my surprise a couple days ago when a very large woman (maybe twice my size) walked out to the pool in a bikini. And her attitude was "why wouldn't I wear a bikini??!!?" When I see someone being so bold, it inspires me.
I did go topless in the pool on my recent girlfriend trip to Florida. I'm working on it--baby steps!!!
Leta
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| Another magnificent Kansas sunset |
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