Loving My Body

     I  read an article this morning about Savannah Guthrie who is a host of the Today show.  She confessed that the one thing she has never felt good about is her body!  She is a skillful interviewer, famous, has a great personality, and is successful by any measure.  She is also quite slender.  So it was a shock for me to read that she felt that way about her body.

As one who has always struggled with weight issues and has only been slender briefly,  I have also struggled with body-hatred issues for most of my life.   In my case, that is far more understandable than it is for Savannah Guthrie  (at least to me), but perhaps we both come by that affliction because of all the pressure to have perfect bodies in our culture.  We tend to measure ourselves against those who do have perfect bodies, and so find ourselves greatly deficient.

I am now 73 years old.   It has taken a lifetime to get to this point.  But now I can honestly and truthfully say that I absolutely love my body.   That is not because it is particularly lovely. I have age spots and moles and skin blemishes.   It is not that I love my body because it is sexy or desirable.  It is not because it meets anyone's standard of beauty.

I love and am grateful for my body because it is healthy.  It has served me wonderfully and well.  My body has given birth successfully four times, creating human beings!   My body has been strong enough to do those things in life I have been  physically called upon to do.  It has fended off disease and illness most of the time.  It has healed itself repeatedly from the various injuries and abuses I have inflicted upon it.

At my age,  I see many people struggling with a great variety of health issues.  Not all have survived those challenges.  And yet, I am basically well.   I knock on wood as I say that.  It is not said out of a place of pride, but humility.  I am ashamed of all my lack of appreciation of my body for so many years!

I know full well that I am reaching a time in my life when that will no longer be true.  So, thank you, Body, for your faithfulness;  for your perseverance,  for your amazing powers.  You are wonderfully made!  You are lovely indeed,  perhaps not the way the world sees.   But now I see fully.   For with age comes wisdom.

I am grateful for this body which has served me so well for so long.