Waltzing without a Pareo
I just came back from CT where we celebrated my niece Lindsey’s wedding to the fine young Doug Robertson. She was a vision — beautiful, sweet, with the kindest smile you’ve ever seen.
Two days after the wedding, I took my sister and her other wonderful daughter Kyra, and my two sons to a local beach. I did not last long — the weather hit 103 degrees that day. But I did take off my beach wrap, and stroll leisurely into the water, which is nothing to write about, except that I didn’t wrap myself up as I usually do, mummy like in my pareo. Doing whatever I can to tastefully hide my body.
Nope. Life’s too short to not feel the warmth (okay, scorch) of the sun on my bare shoulders, arms and legs. What is most interesting, to me anyway, is that the less I care about how I appear to others, the more comfortable I am in my own skin.
Category: Uncategorized One comment »
July 1st, 2008 at 10:13 am
Good for you! Why is it that so many women hate their bodies, and have such a distorted body image?
I had a similar experience at the beach recently. As I jogged for a mile, I couldn’t wait to get in the water because then my untanned body, with its visible cellulite, would be hidden. Sure, intellecutally I was grateful to have a healthy body, and realized that although I might be obese by fashion model standards, by healthy human standards my BMI is where it right where should be. However, on an emotional level, I kept fearing that I looked like a beached whale trying to jog, totally ridiculous.
Eventually, the heat and endorphin release helped me feel more free in my own skin, and I reached the point where I didn’t care what anyone thought about how I looked. It’s also freeing to think that other people have better things to do and think about than what I look like.