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Body beautiful

Just when I start to feel really blech about my body -- when I look in the mirror and think, wow, have you got a long way to go, so long in fact that you should probably just buy a potato sack to keep you warm while you sit on the sofa gobbling all those cookies -- I trip upon something that puts things back into perspective.

Read this mommy's love letter to herself, and view the love letter from her husband that prompted it. I defy you not to see the beauty in these stretch marks, or to realize how amazing the human body really is.

Yes, I've got a long way to go. But this doughy middle has grown, birthed, and nurtured two humans. Two! Whole! People! The tiger stripes on my stomach remind me of the wonder of those pregnancy days, when every cell of my body rippled and stretched with new life. The scar above my pelvis recalls the pain and the sacrifice and the sleeplessness that I've survived. The slight sag of my breasts tells of the snuggly story of nursing a pudgy, lovely infant in the early morning, napping with him by my side in the later afternoon. The roundness of these hips yells "that's right, folks, I can do anything."

I promise to love my body and be kind to it -- to feed it a cookie when needed, take it for long walks in fresh air, let it rest whenever possible. After all, this body has given me precious, irreplaceable gifts.
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