The #LoveMe Challenge for today is to share something about me that I love. I will for sure tell you it will not be my stomach or my predilection for diet soda. (I think the two are related.)
Physically, I used to really like my legs. They were always a bit muscular as I was growing up and they were the strongest part of my body. I could walk everywhere, rode my bike for miles, and in college, leg pressed over my body weight. Those days are a lot longer ago that I would care to think about. My legs are a little mushy now, and with the lack of exercise I’ve had the last month, even more jiggly. And now I have a fairly big scar on one of those legs I need to come to terms with how I feel towards it. I thought I was actually fine with this thing but yesterday, my mother-in-law snail mailed a magazine article about midi skirts and recommended wide leg pants, capris, and crop pants for me. She hasn’t even seen the scar yet. Was I missing something? Am I supposed to feel shame about the scar? Am I supposed to be looking for ways to hide it? Maybe because it’s winter and I’m wearing pants as it is, I haven’t really thought too long and hard about wearing clothes that will make the scar super visible. It hadn’t occurred to me until last night that I was even supposed to worry about it. I mean, it’s not like the wound is still all open and oozing. Is it really going to be reprehensible to others to have to look at my scar if I bust out a miniskirt or a pair of shorts?
I also really like my lips. I have a cupid’s bow. My grandmother used to say my lips looked like Clara Bow’s. I had no idea what she really looked like until the advent of the internet.
Yeah, I can see the similarities lip-wise
I used to spend lots of time mixing together my lipsticks and lip pencils and god knows what else to create colors to accent my lips. My life as a part-time makeup artist ended in my early 20s when suddenly there were lip colors galore (and my inertia eventually kicked in). I still like to wear lipstick since I can never seem to do my eye shadow like the people on Pinterest.
But, I think the whole notion of liking your physical appearance is a slippery slope for me. I really want to make sure that I like me as a person because gravity, time, and unforeseen events can radically alter your physical attributes (just ask my breasts that used to be my pride and joy but now spend days sadly gazing at my knees rather than my chin). If I had wrapped my self-worth around my legs, I might be not so happy right now. As it is, I don’t like the scar but I’m not about to lose sleep over the fact it’s there. Of course, I say that now but the first time I see my cousin’s little girl who I adore but has no filter – that might be a different story…
When it comes right down to it, I like my sense of humor, my ability to be sarcastic about nearly any situation, my inability to play the martyr even if I’m trying, my ingrained politeness that has people asking if I’m Canadian, and my intuition. I like those things that can’t be easily seen, but are readily apparent if you interact with me. Are there aspects of my personality that I would like to change? Probably, but for the most part, I think I’m a person who tries to not make the world less nice, less funny, less happy. And that’s something I really like…