Belly Inspiration

"It is a hard matter, my fellow citizens, to argue with the belly, since it has no ears. " -Marcus Porcius Cato

If you have not encountered so-called "thinspirational" quotes, consider yourselves lucky.  I, a Pinterest addict, often find myself confronted with such generous sayings as "Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels" or "What you eat in private, you wear in public".  I don't know who these women are, but I think maybe they haven't tasted bacon before.

I have a friend who writes a blog about eating disorder recovery who posted this marvelous quote yesterday: "Contemporary Western culture shames women’s bellies, and it’s a clever tactic. Shame makes a woman’s belly an uncomfortable place to be.  To avoid feeling such discomfort, we’re tempted to lose touch with the pro-creative power our bellies shelter, withdrawing our awareness and abandoning our body’s center." (The Woman’s Belly Book: Finding Your True Center for More Energy, Confidence, and Pleasure by Lisa Sarasohn)

This was a revelation for me.  I had never thought of my belly in those terms before, but the belly is essentially feminine, it's the soft place we gave our babies, and you see it in all those gorgeous paintings of Renaissance ladies, and even old goddess statues.  Bellies were just as powerful as breasts, places where life was held and nourished.  So why do we let our culture tell us to harden and hide them?

So I have resolved (albeit a little late) to be kind to my belly in 2012.  That means I will not look at it with hatred, I will not dress so as to pretend it is not there, I will not crush it angrily against my belt.  That tummy rocked my baby to sleep for nine months, it holds all my marvelous food creations, it centers me, it shows that I am a mother.  It is not an ugly vestige of my laziness, it is the place where my daughter can rest her head. I sing with that belly, I laugh with it, it is as much a part of me as my face, my heart, my long legs, my eyes. 

Besides, a warm belly and a lap are great for reading.