I do love the Spring

Originally posted 5/14/07 on my MySpace blog.

wow, that water must be cold
Originally uploaded by gkp.

Well, Happy Mother's Day to all y'all Moms! Hope you had a wonderful day filled with flowers and rainbows. Me, I hauled the family all the way to Greensboro for MD with my mom and in-laws, and I had a mostly wonderful day filled with Thai food (yum!) and clothes shopping (yay!) and people reminding me that they think I am fat (fuck you!)

In fact, I was going to post a rant about the fact that while I love the moms in my life, every time we get together, they conspire to remind me how fat I am. These are otherwise lovely women who somehow release the governor on their normally temperate mouths when it comes to my weight, either by carefully couching their statements in such interesting ways as "Well, you know, you could buy it in that size and hang it up on your wall as encouragement to lose weight!" or in more direct terms by looking pointedly at my stomach and stating, "You're pregnant, aren't you!"

Y'all, I know I am not skinny, but damn, I'm not fat either, at least not according to my BMI. And even if I was, isn't the point of family to love you the way that you are, especially when you respond to these 'encouragements' by calmly stating that you are very comfortable with your size and don't feel the need to lose weight (times two or three or ten?) What is the issue? I understand that these women are uncomfortable with their size in various ways (one has lost a good bit of weight recently, and the other has an eating disorder and is far too thin), but damn! Leave me alone. I'm not looking to inherit your neuroses.

I am a woman. I am not a girl anymore. My body is curvy and soft and downright pillowy in places, but that's okay with me. I am 5'8" and I weigh 158, and I have a rounded tummy instead of a six-pack. I will never wear a bikini. And I am perfectly happy with that. I don't need to be rail thin, or even taut like I once was. My body is strong- I can work all day in my yard digging holes and shoveling earth and making things grow. My body is nuturing- I can envelop my child in my soft arms and make things right with the world. My body is amazing- I grew a child there for nearly nine months, and pushed him out into the world so that I could continue love him.

And even if you have done none of those things, your body is amazing, too, in the fact that it propels you along, whether by your feet, or by wheels, or by your imagination- your mind and your heart continue to propel you along into this amazing journey of life- and who gives a damn if you don't look like the latest supermodel or movie star- so much the better! You look like only you can, and that in itself is amazing!

But I said I wasn't going to rant. My apologies.

It is Spring, time for new beginnings (pray for my second elderberry bush, for it is not looking happy), and old reconnections (Hey David! And Amy! Squeeeee! So excited to 'see' you again!) And, it's also the time for fucking outside. If you don't already know what I'm talking about, go here:

http://www.jonathancoulton.com/primer/listen

And listen to "First of May." And his other stuff, because it rocks. And hey, how many singer-songwriters do you know that can work the phrase "in flagrante delicto" into a song?

Love y'all!

Gabs