Yesterday my beautiful, wonderful sister Emily got married. Before the ceremony started, my (also beautiful and wonderful) sister
Amy was bemoaning the cap sleeves on our bridesmaid dresses, not feeling particularly enthused about showing so much of her "fat" arms. I told her I had recently been thinking about my own fat arms, and how EVERYONE says they hate their arms, and entire half-hour segments of the Today show are dedicated to showing us how to get Michelle Obama's arms... and it occurred to me that if everyone thinks they have fat arms, when are we going to realize that maybe that's just how female arms naturally are? Soft and maybe a little jiggly, but perfect for giving hugs, right? So we made a pact to accept our arms for what they are...
Of course, a few hours later, at the reception, we were cleverly using our Spanish fans to camoflauge our ample arms in all the pictures.
Accepting imperfection is definitely a one-step-at-a-time process...
Seriously, though -- isn't she beautiful? You should totally check out her new blog,
So Says Amy. It is both thought provoking and hilarious, just like Amy herself.
Oh, I hate my fat arms too! So glad I'm not alone! You both look beautiful! I only ever notice my own arms-no one elses! I wonder if this is the case with most of us!
ReplyDeleteTotally, Ramona! I think we could write a whole post of fat arms as a metaphor for imperfection in general -- our own seems huge and ugly, but no one notices them as much as we do ourselves, because they're too busy worried about their own!
ReplyDeleteI have such beautiful daughters with beautiful God given bodies that are relatively healthy and serve the purpose they were sent here to do.
ReplyDeleteI am sad that I have been so obsessed with body image my whole life that it has perhaps distorted my beautiful daughter's body images in their eyes and made it more important than it really is.
If I had one wish, it would be that I had been able to accept my own personal beauty as it was and not do such drastic things trying to make my body conform to some ideal that it was never meant to be.
Thank you Tomi Ann for writing this post. It's a good one!
Tomi,
ReplyDeleteSo true..We all can sometimes look at ourselves and pick it apart. I think both of you look beautiful...I peeked at your Momma's post..she seems very wise and her message to us mothers is so true...Hugs..Krista