What my sister taught me about my body

Your body is magnificent.
Whether you’re 18 or 88, it is spectacular.
The softness, the curves, the rolls, the dimples, the muscles, the lines, the sagging, the firmness, the wrinkles, the extra skin, the rough patches, all the shapes and textures that make up a human body.

We are literally recycled bits of stars that burned billions of years ago, rearranged into human form. That alone is worth marveling at. 

The second to last time I visited my sister before she died, it was summertime.

Saturday rolled around and all she wanted to do was get in her swim suit, pack up her grandkids, and go to the river. So that’s what we did. We brought beach chairs and colorful floaties and thick towels and a huge picnic. We laughed, we splashed, we told stories. She basked in the sun like it was the last summer she would have in her body. She knew.

She had lost a lot of weight by that point, but when she stripped down to her swim suit, my stomach sank. I hadn’t realized just how small her body had become until that moment. She told me that losing so much weight had been hard, and specifically, she really missed having an ass. Knowing how much she prided herself on her ass, we erupted in laughter. Cancer had claimed enough, we weren’t going to let it take our joy that day.

Not having my sister in this realm anymore has taught me a lot, including:

• It is a privilege to have a body.
• It is a privilege to have a few more pounds on my body than necessary.
• It is a privilege to get older and witness my body change with time.

I don’t believe the spirit or essence of someone dies with their physical body, and I know not everyone agrees with this. But what we can all agree on is that when our physical bodies die, the party in that body is over.

So what are we doing not loving every inch of it?
Not worshiping it?
Not amazed by its very existence?

You GET to have a body. And regardless of your opinions about how it should or shouldn’t look, feel, or operate, it is a spectacular thing to have a body.

So on this day of love, I invite you, I encourage you, I implore you to love up on the one and only body you will ever have and say THANK YOU. And from this day forward vow to be kind, loving, accepting, and supportive of its magnificence.

Molly