Friday, March 14, 2008

hips are scary things.

"Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death." -Anais Nin

I've chosen this picture because it's so cozy and warm! Mark made (yes, you read that right) bagels last weekend. They looked so pretty, I had to capture them.

It's been a crazy week in many ways. I know I was supposed to reconnect with my hips, but I found dozens of reasons and excuses not to. (This is what I am talking about.) I would sit down and tune in and get really distracted, or just not do it at all. I have been working very hard, but that is no excuse. The interesting thing is that they have been talking to me. They have been creating a symptom that until this moment I hadn't connected with this process.

Hips, I think, are going to be the hardest part of me to talk to. There's a LOT of cultural crap hanging around this area. The hips hold all of the most dangerous parts of our body. They hold the parts of us that excrete waste - three different forms of it if you are a woman - and they also hold the parts of us most attuned to physical pleasure, and the parts that create, hold and give life. Sex, pee, blood and poo are the aspects of our human body we are the most troubled/ embarrassed/ in denial about. EVERYONE goes to the bathroom and EVERYONE farts, and yet we are apologetic or embarrassed when we have to go. An awful lot of people have sex, but we don't really want to talk about it or we blush when we think about it. You can show someone being shot on television and people accept it. But show two people making love and it gets an 'R' rating. We are okay with violence but ashamed of intimacy. What does that say about us?

I think I have been going about this all wrong. As I wrote the above paragraph, I had a feeling like my hips wanted to move. I have been trying to sit still to listen to them. Today I am going to shake 'em up a bit and see what they say. That's the biggest lesson I have had so far from all of this - my body wants to move!!!

"My feet danced and my arms moved, not in a dance that I had learned from others, but in a dance that moved and lived in me. My whole body moved in joyous ecstasy." - Mika Walteri

P.S. Please if you have a moment, go send some love to these two brave ladies. They were two of my very very first blogger friends and are two of the fiestiest, most amazing women out there. I love them both very much and they could use some lovin' right now.

9 comments:

C. said...

I love my hips. I love the way they curve just so under my skirts and when I lay on my side, the soft dip between stomach and thigh. Silky. My hips carried my body and two children. My hips are strong. Broad. :) So glad you 'followed' me, I'm 'following' you back. P.S. Anais Nin is one of my favorite women in the world.

Anonymous said...

i've never been very comfortable with my body -- i've always just felt so shy and awkward. my friend suggested that i join a NIA class, but i haven't found the courage to do that just yet...even though my hips want to move sometimes too. :)

enchantedartist said...

I love my hips...shimmy...shimmy...shake! They were a home for my children before they were born...they love belly dancing and yoga.

You are right...there are a lot of hang ups about this area...

I have not always felt this way, in fact it has really only been this past year that I have really come to appreciate my body...it's been a very long process.

And just for the record...I don't fart...it's my dog! :)

xoxo

Brandi Reynolds said...

oh my god I am so in love with this post!!! yes! thank you for talking about hips and what they hold! For so long, I was ashamed of mine too-and I'm a small, petite person! yet, I still felt they were too...I dunno...they held too much that was taboo. and wrong.

NOT. WRONG. there is no wrong about being a woman.

Frankie said...

Megg, I love this post! It is so honest and daring and so much of the needed-to-be-said. I think your line "we are okay with violence but ashamed of intimacy. What does that say about us?" is brilliant and so thought provoking. Why IS that?

And you are so very right. It is difficult to talk about all of those things. I blush. I smile awkwardly. I don't like to share those intimate things about myself. But why? Why when I'm so willing to put forth thoughts and experiences in every other aspect? Are we programmed to think that way?

This whole thing really got me thinking and I am so grateful to you for that. Thanks for sharing your journey with us, with me. I am so much better for it!!

xoxo

Colorsonmymind said...

Love reading your reflections darling. It seems right that you have a running long running convo with a part of the body that really does hold so much.

Love you
snuggles and smooches.

Rob Windstrel Watson said...

A brave post and also profound.

Especially the bit about violence being less embarrassing than our body's natural beauty.

Er, I mean yours ... I'm a bloke :-)

Sorry!

Chloe said...

Oh you are so right about all the cultural and emotional baggage carried and symbolized around our hips. I don’t think there is a more loaded part of a woman’s body. We shame our normal functions and natural urges and condemn our curves and cellulite. I think it’s time we give our hips a chance to have their say. Way to go Meg!

Marilyn said...

The hips...aaahhh...they require several posts unto themselves, don't they? ;)