Love Letter to My Body: I’m Sorry

“I will live within your limits as the very wisdom of God.”

By Janet Davis | Twitter: @janetdavisTX

Clearly, I need to begin with an apology.

I have not loved you well.

I have treated you like a machine

Rather than honored you

As the sacred space that you are.

I apologize.

Please, forgive me.

I have abandoned you in your time of need and of pain.

No, not completely.

But significantly.

I have held other’s pain while refusing yours.

I apologize.

Please, forgive me.

I have not listened to your wisdom,

Tending instead the voices of intellect or impulse or others.

I am listening now.

I celebrate your beauty and complexity.

I celebrate your wonderfully woven goodness and interconnectedness.

I celebrate your softness and resilience.

I celebrate the whole of you and how graciously and tenderly you hostess my soul.

I love you, my body.

And I commit to live into that love in new ways.

I will listen to you.

I will live within your limits as the very wisdom of God.

I will hold your pain with the largeness of my soul and pray for your healing.

May you find new health and strength and wholeness in my love.

May my love find the same in you.

Read Janet’s full post here.

___________________________

More Beautiful Body Sorry and Symphonies … 

• Lakin Easterling | Twitter: @weesparrowleae

” … there’s a stigma in my mind

that people under five feet two

should be wisps

boned like a bird

with skin like sleek feathers

and weigh as much as one

but it’s not true

and i need to apologize for trying to make you fit

starving you

stuffing you

making you retch

groan with hunger pains

for days weeks and months

only to make you run

and lift

and sweat to be better

but there was nothing wrong in the first place

it is my fault for making you feel so

and for treating you like i did

for so treacherously long

i am sorry …

and i can only say how truly glad i am

that your strength was greater than my weakness.”

Read the rest of Lakin’s post here.

• Katherine Folkers | Twitter: @KatherineSHill 

“I’m sorry I abused you. I’m sorry I didn’t have the strength to stand up for you and love you just the way you were.  I’m sorry I pulled your insides out and ruined your whole digestive system to cope with my pain. I’m sorry I tried to get rid of you again, and again and again.”

Read the rest of Katherine’s post here. 

• Becca 

“i’m sorry i shaved your legs so early.

i’m sorry that i’ve said words ungrateful and untrue.

i’m sorry i’ve compared you to anyone, ever.

you are my earthen vessel, from way back then, right here now and into the new heavens and the new earth.

go ahead and have grey hair already.  you deserve it.

and i love that gap between your front teeth, too.”

Read the rest of Becca’s post here.

• Jess 

“Please accept my apologies. I’ve done you wrong. I overfed you and I starved you. You have gone through too many extremes.

But this stops now. I will try to embrace you as often as I can. I will love every inch of you. Every scar. Every stretch mark. Every wrinkle. Every pimple. Every split end. Every inch of pasty white skin. Every ounce of fat. Every ounce of muscle.”

Read the rest of Jess’ post here.

_________________________

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Idelette McVicker

I like soggy cereal and I would like to go to every spot on the map of the earth to meet our world’s women. I dream of a world where no women or girls are for sale. I dream of a world where women and men are partners in doing the work that brings down a new Heaven on earth. My word last year was “roar” and I learned it’s not about my voice rising as much as it is about our collective voices rising in unison to bring down walls of injustice. This year, my own word is “soar.” I have three children and this place–right here, called shelovesmagazine.com–is my fourth baby. I am African, although my skin colour doesn’t tell you that story. I am also a little bit Chinese, because my heart lives there amongst the tall skyscrapers of Taipei and the mountains of Chiufen. Give me sweet chai and I think I’m in heaven. I live in Vancouver, Canada and I pledged my heart to Scott 11 years ago. I believe in kindness and calling out the song in each other’s hearts. I also believe that Love covers–my gaps, my mistakes and the distances between us. I blog at idelette.com and tweet @idelette.

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