Love Your Tree

The Good Body by Eve Ensler is an absolutely wonderful book, as I have mentioned here. I have been putting off this post since I finished reading the book. So here it is.

Eve and Leah, a seventy-four-year-old African Masai woman:
Eve~Sorry, I don't eat bread.
Leah~I forgot. You're American. 90210. What kind of place is it? In Africa, we are desperate for food, we have so little; in America, where you have all the food, you either eat too much or not at all. Your bodies are just pictures to you. Here we live in our bodies, they serve us, they do our work.
Eve~Leah, do you like your body?
Leah~Do I like my body? Do I like my body? I love my body. God made this body. God gave me this body. My fingers, look at my fingers. I love my fingernails, little crescent moons. They lead right up to my arms-so strong-they carry things along. And my legs, my legs are long. Masai people, we are tall, I get there fast, my legs can wrap around a man and hold him there. My breasts...My breast, well look at them, they're mine, my breast so long and-
Eve~(Interrupting) Leah, wait, I don't know how to do this. I don't know how to be in my body, I can't get past my stomach.
Leah~What's wrong with it?
Eve~It's round. It used to be flat.
Leah~It's your stomach. It's meant to be obvious. It's meant to be seen. Eve, look at that tree? Do you see that tree? (Points to another tree) Do you like that tree? Do you hate that tree 'cause it doesn't look like that tree? Do you say that tree isn't pretty 'cause it doesn't look like a tree? You're a tree. I'm a tree. You've got to love your body, Eve. You've got to love your tree. Love your tree.

I've read that passage over and over again. It is one of the most beautiful and truthful things I have ever read in regards to self image, to the body. Tears are surfacing. The body. As an anthropology student and an artist, the body is my altar. I find it to be the most fascinating thing and that very thing that is most frequently unappreciated. Unappreciated to the self, to one's own body. I'm not saying I'm perfect or feel that I am, but I'm working on it [just to put that out there]. The way I see it, from a molecular level the body and all that it contains is capable of astounding things. Things you do every day. Things that you expect your body to do without thought. I believe this is the root of my initial enchantment with human anatomy, this idea that my body can move, that I can see, react, consume, excrete, release, tense, speak, grow, sleep, hear, dream, think, process, reject, infect, bleed, breathe, smell, manipulate, adjust, create, taste, digest, transport, multiply, age, connect, express, and to feel.
*Cries*
Take at least just one, only one moment during each day of your living breathing bodily life and think about this. Focus one day on just one aspect of how your body is working with you or even against you. Think about it. Feel it. Question it. Marvel over it. Embrace it.
Society has come a long way in growth as well as destruction. The metaphor of a body as a tree is incredible. For me, I have a growing love for trees. Anthropologically as well as aesthetically. Trees do us nothing but good. Archaeology relies quite nicely on trees, dead or alive. I plan to do at least a few paintings in dedication to them. Trees are visually pleasing as well as captivating in their sense of function and biology. Just like the body. Every tree is different and absolutely unique from the next one. Just like the body. Every tree has its diversity in terms of origin and appearance. Just like the body. Every tree deserves equal respect, free of prejudice on only the basis of physical appearance. Just like the body.
Find a tree, that you can identify yourself with. As you find things to love about that tree, you will find those qualities in yourself that deserve love. It is still in the works for me to study the different types of trees. Just as it is in the works for me to find myself.
If you ever find yourself in a situation where your partner or whoever is not satisfied with your body, I've found this thought to help: "If you don't love my body, I can find someone who does."
Regardless, there is always someone out there that will gladly worship your altar. But it first must start with you. With that in mind, I think I will begin to document the things that fascinate me about my body, the things I love and the things that interests me. The beginning of bodily love.

Our body is the carrier of the stories
of the world
of the earth
of the mother.
Our body is the mother.
Our body came from Mother.
Our body is our home.
We are crying here.
We are found.
We are too much.
We are empty.
We are full.
We live in a good body.
We live in the good body.
Good body.
Good body.
Good body.