If I said you had a beautiful body.....

If I said you had a beautiful body......some of you would sing the next line in the song, "would you hold it against me," but the majority of my women readers would snicker and laugh at the thought that their body could ever be beautiful.

Body image. It's the greatest of all struggles for most, if not all, American women. We are inundated by images of airbrushed, anorexic models with impossible plastic surgery enhancements. They assault our senses from the magazine stands in the checkout line, billboards on the highway, and the television shows on every network. Women, often under pressure from the men in their lives, believe that their value is found in looking like these models. This has led to a deadly epidemic of eating disorders and other dysfunctional behavior.

Recently browsing in the dollar bins at a local bookstore, I picked up a book filled with beautiful women - not the swimsuit model variety, but ordinary, everyday women. The book was a collection of these women's poignant stories of their journey to find peace in their own imperfect skin. Each woman was tastefully photographed in black and white alongside her story. The women were a cross section of America - old, middle aged, young, skinny, fat, wrinkled, even a breast cancer survivor. As I read the stories, I was awed by the sheer beauty encapsulated in those pages. I saw that real beauty is not the computer enhanced, plastic surgery repaired women on the front covers of magazines. Real beauty is found in a grandmother's winkled, gnarled hands - proof of a long life, lived well. Real beauty is found in the young mom's huge scar from her emergency C-section - a proud war wound in the battle to deliver a first child. Real beauty is large and small, light and dark. Real beauty is seeing yourself and the women around you as a unique and special part of God's creation.

On my way out, I walked past the latest Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition and shook my head. The woman on the cover did not compare in beauty to the stories I had just read and the pictures I had just seen. Fake and airbrushed, she did not hold a candle to the real beauty I had witnessed. I was saddened that our society has been satisfied with so little for so long. We have bought into the terrible lie that beauty is a tan, skinny Barbie like figure.

I would encourage my readers to notice and appreciate the beautiful women in your life today. Compliment them, encourage them, and love them. Begin with the beautiful woman in your mirror.

The other stuff

What, two blogs? Yes, I thought I would separate my other random thoughts from the Crazy Love blog. For those of you who like to keep things neat and organized, here's my other random thoughts tonight.

*listening to Nevertheless, "Rest". Love it. Maybe even more than "Sleeping In." Also picked up the new tenth avenue north CD. Looking forward to checking it out.

*Have a friend who was standing up in her rocking chair to staple something to the wall. Fell. Her daughter said, "Have you heard, my mom fell off her rocker." Funny!

*Just to show my insecurity a bit....shopping trip at Target tonight. I needed to grab a couple of things for school. I was walking past a sale rack and spotted a pair of black jeans that I liked. They were a size that I've not had on in about 8 years. I bought them and took them home with me because I was too nervous to try them on at Target. Like cold sweat, butterflies in my stomach nervous. Don't know why, that's just the way I am, didn't want to get my hopes up. Trying on clothes is a traumatic event that I dread and avoid as much as possible. But excited to say that they fit. No tears tonight.

Thoughts from the kiddie pool

Warning: Blog contains questionable content and/or language. Please read cautiously :)

Today the family was hangin' out at Schlitterbahn down in New Braunfels. Now, I am not a fan of water parks (see yesterday's blog about my phobia), however, I was impressed by this one. It was family friendly, and very different from other water parks I've been to. I spent all day in the kiddie pool with Abby while Shawn took the big kids on the scary slides and stuff. The kiddie pool is a great place to people watch. After 4 hours in the same spot, I came up with some interesting generalizations about women and their bodies.

Now girls, we are all born decently confident. We did not worry about our weight, hair color, eye color, stretch marks, sagging boobs, or anything else when we were little. But somewhere along the way, almost all women lose that self-confidence. Nowhere is that more obvious than at the kiddie pool. There were a few one-baby moms in the pool. A couple of those ladies still braved a bikini in public, but most wore shorts over the bottom. Now we all know that they are trying to cover up that tiny baby roll and probably a few stretch marks. Then there were the two-baby mommies - these moms changed to tankinis - typically with a skirted bottom. Still cute, but definitely covering up expanding hips and thighs. Then there were the other moms - three or more kids. These are the women who wear swimsuits under t-shirts and shorts or wear swimdresses. They no longer make eye contact with the other adults around them and pretend to be invisible because they are so self-conscious about their bodies. Now there were 2 exceptions to these generalizations - both were beautiful women who had obviously had some extensive repairs done. What was interesting to me is that many of the women trying to hide their bodies were very beautiful, slender, and attractive. My guess though is that they no longer view themselves as such because of the changes their body has gone through after childbirth. I am amazed that we as women are so self-conscious and find our value and worth in the mirror. It was most definitely interesting to watch and contemplate the attitudes of these women.  Really - life is short - who cares?!? I think I'm hot and my husband thinks I'm incredibly, amazingly, smokin' hot - does anybody else's opinion really matter?

The interesting thing is that I was telling all this stuff to my husband who says, "You know that's what makes you so hot." That makes no sense to me whatsoever - that he finds me more attractive after four kids than back in the day when I was skinny just because I'm comfortable in my own skin - But I guess I don't have to understand it to enjoy it!

Couple of side notes: Apparently men also change shape and have body image issues the more children that they have. It was really, really very funny to watch them as well but time is short and I can't share all of life's lessons tonight.

I did go down one big scary slide with my kids. It had to be a hundred feet tall with rushing water down the side of the steep mountain. They would not let anybody on who was not at least 3 years old! At the top, a small toddler began to cry with fear, and I felt led to join in, but restrained myself. My kids coached me through the entire process. "Mom, if you take a deep breath here, then you can hold your nose there, and really it's not as scary as it looks." I made it down in one piece, having only a moment of panic where I frantically tried to climb out of the shallow water and abandon the slide. They were very proud of me and promised that if we ever returned they would go with me on all the "safe" rides and help me not be scared! I love having kids - they do keep me from taking myself too seriously.

Now it's back to work for me. I have a crazy week ahead of me and need to get to sleep.