How I Remember What’s True – By Curvy Yoga

 
“How do you learn to love your body?” she asked.
“Well,” I answered, “I think it’s best to take love off the table at first. If it feels like too far of a leap, it’s easy to feel like a failure and give up.”
“So what do you do instead?” she followed up.
“Start where you are,” I responded.
“Wouldn’t you say that’s true about life, too?” she asked
A laugh emerged from somewhere deep inside. “Yes, I’d say so,” I admitted. “You can say that about so many things.”
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When I was a child, I felt most seen by the girl heroes of my favorite novels: Harriet of Harriet the Spy, Mary of The Secret Garden, Anne of Anne of Green Gables, Ramona of Ramona Quimby, and Claudia of From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.
All of these girls had one thing in common: rich interior lives. They knew a bigger life existed for them, and they lived it first in their dreams before bringing it into consciousness.
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When I went to college, my parents thought I should be an Accounting major. “They make good money,” my dad said, “And they always need women.”
Assured by the practicality of it all, I agreed.
Until halfway through my first semester, when I found myself daydreaming of throwing myself out the window of my future accounting firm.
The next day, I stopped by the English department and switched my major.
—
Some days I feel like I’ve spent the past 25+ years getting back to what I’ve always known about myself. Other days, I wonder how many more years it will take to land there. And how many more still to trust in the landing.
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Over dinner recently, gushing about one of our favorite writers and how perfectly she captures what it means to be human, a friend said in awe, “Yeah, and she’s just a writer – not like a life coach or spiritual leader or anything.” I thought about that and then said, “Yes. She’s a writer who does her inner work and tells the truth.”
Then we fell into silence.