Happy Monday,
How is everyone doing this fine Monday afternoon? How was your weekend? I’d love to hear about all the events that went on in your world the last couple of days. Send me a text or comment and fill me in. This week promises to be nothing less then busy and crazy. I’m on the final countdown for completing my book. My birthday is Thursday, so I have so much to do to get the book completed by then, along with the other things I need to finish up.
For a quick note on my weekend, I did get quite a bit done. I went to the disc golf demo here in Canyon Lake and that was so much fun. I met some neat people and got invited to a vow renewal of a couple that will be celebrating 50 years together. Went to the Farmers Market Sunday and John treated me to a shaved ice, which was yummy. My friend Tara stopped by Sunday with her hubby for a couple drinks and a chat. Oh, and John took me to check out my golf cart status. It’s at the dealer, and it is being promised to be here in my driveway in the next 2-3 weeks. Super excited about that.
I did want to let you all know, that with trying to finish up my book, I’ve been neglecting my blog, so what I’ve decided to do over the next couple of days is, write short blogs. I have so much passion for doing this that I feel like something is missing when I don’t write. Please bear with me and I do promise, once my book is complete, I’ll be back to blogging full force. I have a couple research blogs I need to post, one of which was a question posed by a friend of mine regarding a certain scripture.
This morning while rummaging through my positive affirmations, I ran across this one and I thought what a great way to start not only the day, but the week. I know for me, I tend to be overly critical of myself, my looks and my body image. Sadly, I’ve been this way my entire life. I think it goes along with my lack of self esteem and never feeling like I’m good enough. When I saw this affirmation, or quote, it put my negative feelings of feeling old and frumpy into a new perspective. “Is fat really the worst thing a human being can be? Is fat worse than vindictive, jealous, shallow, vain, boring, evil or cruel? Not to me.”- J.K.Rowling.
Now I’m not saying, hey, lets all go out and eat ourselves into a society of being overweight and lazy. I don’t think that’s what the quote means either. I believe it’s putting into perspective our attitude towards ourselves. So what if we are a little chubby. So what if we have a couple fat rolls. I think it was in Eat, Love and Pray with Julia Roberts where in one scene her and a friend went for pizza and the friend was basically afraid to eat a pizza because she had developed a “muffin top.” Now by no means was this girl fat at all. She was not your media thin either. She was a beautiful girl in a nice body. In this scene, Julia said to her friend, “has a man ever left after seeing you naked? No, because he’s the luckiest man in the world at that moment. He’s with a naked woman and he’s about to get lucky.” The point was, if you’re with someone that loves you, he isn’t going to not want to be with you because you may or may not have a muffin top or a roll or two.
John is always telling me how much he loves me. When I critique my body, he still says he loves me. All he wants is for me to be healthy. He never makes me feel ashamed of this chubby I’m living with. I swim 4-5 times a week. I do what I can do physically. Right now I’m limited because of my headaches and balance issues, but I try. I would still love to have a nice body, but I do what I can do and while there is room to improve on certain things, I do my best, so I keep moving forward, one step at a time, trying to lose a little or at least, tone up. I can say this about me though, I’m not vindictive, jealous, shallow, evil or cruel. I don’t think I’m boring and I’m certainly not vain.
I appreciate my friends who look good in their bodies, but I do know, that even my friends who look amazing too me struggle with the way they look. I think society has really got us all to the point where we are never happy with ourselves sadly. I applaud those that are, and I wonder how they became so grounded and comfortable with themselves. I’ve seen larger women wear things that I wouldn’t be caught dead in out of fear, but they walk into a room and light it up, not because they are flaunting their extra booty or “muffin top”, it is because they like who they are. Being a confident person in a bigger frame is awesome and those are some of the women that I admire. They have a beauty about them that radiates from the inside out and they embrace who they truly are.
I appreciate too the women that work their buns off to look amazing and can wear that bikini better than a seventeen year old. I love the woman that is 50 something, and looks hot in her jeans. She works hard to look that way and she embraces her beauty iwithout judging those of us that can’t wear that itty bitty yellow polka dot bikinni. I have a friend that has four kids and she’s a grandma, she is I think, 53 and for as long as I’ve known her, she’s looked amazing, even after her kiddos were born, she looked great. You notice her when she walks into a room because she looks good and she’s beautiful, then she starts to talk and you no longer see this amazing body she has, you see the kindest soul a person can have. She’s genuine.
I guess, the whole idea of this blog is to say, it doesn’t matter what we look like as long as we are a good person. and we are doing our best to be healthy. Even the prettiest and hottest women no longer look amazing if they are cruel towards others. Who we are isn’t defined by our looks or body, it’s defined by our character. The body and looks are a bonus to some and that’s great for them, and if you are blessed to be not only beautiful with a nice body and you don’t have a beautiful soul, then what you have isn’t worth much. Kuddos to those who are as they say, beautiful inside and out, you deserve to be applauded, especially because you don’t judge those of us that aren’t in your league of outward hotness.
I love being with people, especially other women that can compliment each other and have mutual respect for one another based upon, not what we bring to the table as far as our looks, but based upon our minds and thoughts and our kindness and love we display towards each other as well as others. The person we are isn’t what you see on the outside, or shouldn’t be, it’s who we are on the inside, and how we choose to treat others. It’s our core makeup.
We should strive to be the best we can be. We absolutely should take care of our bodies and our health. We need to grow as individuals and be accepting of each other, not judging. We are all unique individuals and that’s what makes life so adventerous and exciting. We can learn from each other and expereince a wide variety of something new. Just like the flowers that grow fin our garden, we can grow in the lives of each other.
I am working on not being so critical of my looks and body. It’s a hard habit to break, however, after reading this quote this morning, I realize, I may not be perfect in my outward image, but I try never to be a vindicitve, jealous, shallow or vain person. I don’t ever want to be evil or cruel towards anyone. I know I’m far from perfect. I think though, if we keep working towards accepting others, we will be the most beautiful beings here on earth. “Conduct yourselves with all humility, gentleness and patience. Accept each other with love, and make an effort to preseve the unity of the Spirit with the peace that ties you together.”-Ephesians 4:2,3. Great advice written for us to consider in our daily dealings with others.
I’m not skinny, I’m a bit of a chub, and I will continue to work towards a healthier body, but if I am ever blessed to be one hot mama, I hope to never get lost in being vain, cruel or shallow. I hope to always hold onto the mindset of treating others the way I want to be treated. Life is a gift from God. All life is a gift, no matter what you look like. Life’s about the way we choose to treat each other, even those we just meet.
Well guys, I need to say goodbye for now, I have to get to working on my book and finishing up some homemade chicken soup for my son who has the flu. Have a wonderful day. You are amazing, and wonderfully made and I can prove it. “You are beautiful. For you are fearfully and wonderfully made”…. -Psalms 139:14. Can’t get much better than that. Take care and until next time, don’t forget, Love Life++
Love Life with Dawna 