Honour my belly?

What a concept! No one has encouraged me to do that before. In fact, our culture wants to me to hide my belly. No longer! Belly bold: belly beautiful.

I attended Lisa Sarasohn's one-day workshop held in Thunder Bay just recently.... She tells her own story and the stories of other women. Her book surprises me. Her book makes me chuckle. Her book gives me belly laughs. Her book sobers me. Her book makes me realize that my problem is not with my belly but with my culture.

The Woman's Belly Book is a real gem. I encourage you to begin what Lisa calls "a belly-celebrating adventure." What we do to our bellies we do to ourselves. What we do to ourselves we do to the earth.

--Marjut Vahtola
Resting Frog Yoga Studio
first published in the Chronicle Journal
Thunder Bay, Ontario, June 2006

Body, Beautiful

I was avoiding the mirror as usual one day as I was getting out of the
shower. My daughter, who had magically grown to be a tall, long-limbed
six-year-old, came into the bathroom and considered my familiar
hulking form. As I was toweling off, she pointed to my stretch marks,
now mostly faded to a silvery white, but just as plentiful as ever.
"What's that?" she wanted to know. I explained how she had grown in my
tummy and stretched the skin, leaving those marks.

She gave me one of those I-am-your-amazing-guru looks and said, "I'm so
glad I was born. I love this life!"

Yes indeed. And I hope with all my heart that her body treats her as
well as mine has treated me. I know, all too well, that many women are
not so lucky. That 95-pound figure I had in college is long gone now,
but I have gained an appreciation for what my body can do and all it
has given me. My children's strong beautiful bodies are a reflection of
the beauty and grace that are still mine, and always will be.

--Elizabeth M. Browne

Excerpt from "Body, Beautiful," first published in the July 2006 issue
of Western North Carolina Woman, used by permission.

The only Bush I can trust...

...is my own.

(Seen on a bumpersticker in Asheville, NC)

What's Your Story?

What's a "belly story"? It's a story about how we're valuing and revaluing our body's center. Here are a couple of examples:

In The Serpent and the Wave, Jalaja Bonheim writes that while she was shopping in a local market, a toddler approached her. Proudly patting his belly, he declared "I am me!"

Did you watch Wonder Woman on television back in the '70s? I missed that. But according to Michael Sims in Adam’s Navel, when Diana Prince changed into her Wonder Woman wardrobe, special effects showed a "cosmic force seeming to radiate outward from the vicinity of her navel."

What's your story?

Dinner for the Earth

Did you hear Terry Gross' April 11 interview on Fresh Air with Michael Pollan? He's the author of The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals.

I'm especially moved by his statement that eating is "our most profound engagement with the natural world." Pollan titles the introduction to his book "Our National Eating Disorder."

I'm preparing to lead a ritual with therapists working to prevent and treat eating disorders, especially among women. I'll be telling the story of grain goddess Demeter and her daughter Persephone as the story of our relationship with our bodies, with earth's body.

NASA's telerobotics program has developed a robot to automate "terrestrial agricultural operations," naming the machine "Demeter." How great do you think the grain goddess' fury might be?

The Goddess On My Desktop...

I've been revamping my loveyourbelly.com website in preparation for the release of the new and expanded edition of The Woman's Belly Book, all about reclaiming our body's center as sacred, not shameful.

I've been working long hours, my belly rumbling its own comments from time to time. As I prepared to call it quits last night, I noticed that one of the web pages had made its way to my desktop. It's an excerpt from an ancient Indian scripture called The Mystery of the Triune Goddess. The Mother of the Universe tells us where she is and how to connect with her:

"Abide in the core of your being — you will find Me there."

What a timely reminder!