It's time to get naked...

Driving along in my car today listening to music, a song came on my ipod that I hadn't heard in years. Another gem by India Arie. Perfectly timed.

"Private Party"

I'm having a private party

Ain't no body here but me, my angels, and my guitar 

singin' baby look how far we've come here

I'm havin' a private party

Learning how to love me

Celebrating the woman I've become, yeah

I tried to call my mother, but

She didn't get where I was going

I called my boyfriend and he said

Call me back a little later baby

I hung up the phone, I felt so alone

Started to feel a little pity

That's when I realized that I

Gotta find the joy inside of me

I'm gonna take off all my clothes

Look at myself in the mirror

We're gonna have a conversation

We're gonna heal the disconnection

I don't remember when it started

But this is where it's gonna end

My body is beautiful and sacred

And I'm gonna celebrate it

All my life I've been looking for

Somebody else to make me whole

But I had to learn the hard way 

True love began with me

This is not ego or vanity

I'm just celebrating me

Sometimes I'm alone but never lonely

That's what I've come to realize

I've learned to love the quiet moments

The Sunday mornings of life

Where I can reach deep down inside

Or out into the universe

I can laugh until I cry

Or I can cry away the hurt

***********

For me, it's not me, my angels, and my guitar. 

For me, it's me, my angels, and my pens, my journal, and my camera.

It's me, my angels, a solo lunch, and a two hour jaunt through a museum I love.

It's me, my angels, and a few quiet moments outside in the sun.

Celebrating life, art, spring, food, water bottles, and baldness. 

As difficult as it may be, we all need to strip ourselves bare, get naked, literally and figuratively, stare at ourselves in the mirror and bring an end to the disconnection, the dislike, and the disdain. 

The body you have, this body I have - it's the only one we are ever gonna have on this journey. 

Learn to love it. I beg you - love that body. Every inch of it. Every pound of it.

You will not have it in its current form ever again. 

Who was it that wrote that someday you will look at the photos of your 20, 30, 40 year old body and wish you could have it back? You will wish for that skin, that backside, those breasts, and those hands. You will wish for that hair, those legs, those shoulders, and that stomach. 

Go ahead. I dare you - fall in love with the skin you're in. 

Love the body that transports your magnificent soul. 

Celebrate the woman, the man, the person you've become and

the one you are becoming. 

Don't wait; start the party tonight when you get ready for bed.

Get naked and dance in front of your mirror. 

Laugh at the silliness and the beauty of it,

the bouncing and the rolling.

Marvel at how spectacular your body is,

at how spectacular you are. 

You are a wonder, a gift, a miracle.

Every inch of you. Every pound of you.