Summer can be a particularly hard time of year to be a woman in a body. Many of us have complicated relationships with our bodies and with the sheer number of messages telling us to be more of this and less of that, it’s no wonder we have a hard time seeing ourselves clearly. This week we’re celebrating the skin we’re in with a look back at one of the most powerful stories SheLoves has ever published and four of the dozens and dozens of articles that first post birthed. It’s time to speak kindly to ourselves. These five women show us how it’s done.
A Love Letter to my Body
This is the post that started it all. Megan’s honesty took our breath away and seven years after the post originally went up, we keep coming back to it.
“Who was I to rail at you? To beat you down day after day after day? To abuse you in front of others? I never really saw you, did I?” —Megan Gahan
A Love Letter to my Body: I am Thankful
“It took me too long to notice. But here, now, let me just say it and then, like a prophet, let me believe it, and live into the truth of it every day: I’m thankful for you. And I love you.” —Sarah Bessey
An Honest Letter to my Post-Baby Body
“These jiggly arms, this grey hair, these fine lines that track their way across my face … This is what experience looks like. This is what it means to be a woman and no longer a girl.” —Olive Chan
A Love Letter my Body: I’m Sorry
“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.” —Janet Davis
A Love Letter to My Body: You Are More
“There is no looking in the mirror to find a reflection. There is only looking at others, and finding yourself. Because this skin is but a canopy to stretch out around those you love to keep them warm and dry against a world that pins beauty against a billboard and forces it to surrender its soul.” —Emily Wierenga
