Hi everyone. This is my first forum post (shame on me) even though I feel I’ve known you all forever. Between my shyness and my chronic procrastination syndrome, I tend to give things so much thought that at the end it feels as I’ve already done them. Today, however, that was not the case.
I had a week that felt like a rollercoaster. Three days of fear and horrible uncertainty (I found a lump in my chest) followed by pure happiness (it turned out to be a cyst) and other kind of blessings (Ornella’s beautiful post, which I wish I knew how to link from here, but hopefully Greg will help me.)
All of this led me to try something I’ve wanting to do for a long time, but was always postponing. That is, to climb my gym’s hiking wall. I thought it was the perfect time to do it, as a little homage to the present moment and the great feeling of being healthy.
I wanted to share this with you not because I need to brag about it (though, of course, I’m doing it too), but because while I was up there, feeling like a happy monkey, I had a thought that struck me as lightning: “Our bodies are awesome only because the allow us to do stuff like this”. And, still, we are always finding faults with it, holding grudges against it, complaining about it, etcetera.
We reagard it only as something to be judged by others, and whose only function must be to look perfect (for whatever that means). I know this has been said many times, but today it became SO clear to me that I just couldn’t believe it. While I saw myself strecthing like crazy trying to grab the corner of a rock or placing my foot where it wouldn’t slip, I remembered how many times I’d tried to cover my arms (because they were skinny) or to hide my legs (because they were thick). And, hey, there they were today, in all their glorious skininess and thickness, proving me how strong and adecquate they were for the task. And making me really, really proud of them.
I hope this resonates with you, in regards of the hundred things we do —play with our pets and children, drag furniture around, jump in joy— while taking our bodies for granted. In my case, I’m sure that the next time something like “This pretty skirt doesn’t look good on my legs” crosses my mind, I’ll immediately change it to “My awesome wall climbing legs deserve a much better skirt”.

I decided I’d ONLY share my epiphany with people I felt close to. That’s exactly what I’m doing now.