Love yourself because you are the REAL deal

I cut the Nike ad that follows out of a magazine about 12 years ago and kept it in my dresser for those days I didn't feel beautiful...The paper has yellowed, so I wanted to keep it electronically. Go Nike's ad agency (Nike is also the goddess of victory btw) for drafting this powerful copy.

(Reminds me of my favorite sculpture ever from the Louvre in Paris - Winged Victory. Image from SandraShaw.com)

Yes, this is a goddess.

but you are not a goddess and you aren't ever going to be a goddess so maybe you should just get used to it. You'll never be perfect (sorry) and you're not worshipped (usually) and does this matter? No.

Goddesses are worshipped because they aren't real and they aren't us and they aren't allowed to complain. Goddesses are worshipped even though (and this is important) they are really stone and really plaster and, more often than not, really dead.

And yes they will never grow old and they will never grow up and they will stay that way (stay that way stay that way). This, however, is not the way you will stay.

Because someday, since you are human, you will notice that time has passed and you are not who you were twenty years ago or ten years ago or even last week. Someday, since you are human, you will notice your body has changed and your kneecaps look more like Winston Churchill than ever before.

Do not be alarmed.

Because someday, since you are human, you will decide it is time to take those long walks and run down the streets and push and bend and move your body in ways you'd never thought possible. And it may be harder than you think. And you will get tired and kind of cranky and you may want to stop.

But you won't.

And as you move you will learn to rejoice in your body because it is yours and no one else's. You will learn to rejoice in being imperfect because perfect is such a complete and utter bore. You will learn to rejoice in your kneecaps because they are your kneecaps and they have seen the world.

And the goddesses, from some high and chilly mountaintop, will be jealous of you. Let them.

They are stone. You are flesh. They have pedestals. You just kicked the hell out of yours. They can't move. But you can.

JUST DO IT.