“The beauty of a living thing is not the atoms that go into it, but the way those atoms are put together.” ~ Carl Sagan
This post discusses body image and self perception around body image.
I have had this image a while but it was one of those images that whilst I could see the beauty of it overall there were also parts of that I didn’t like. Actually not really parts but part, my tummy. And so I didn’t post it when I first took it but over time that initial discomfort has waned and each time I look at it I see my belly less and the rest of the image more.
The lines and structure of my collar bones and shoulder, the little wisp of hair, the delicate freckles that pattern my chest, the curve of my breasts, the way my nipples stand out and the definition of the muscle in my thigh.
It is hard to ignore that the things I perceive as flaws, they are the first thing I saw in the image and for a while the only thing but the more time I have spent looking at the image that have changed. I see it less, it seems less important, no longer the only thing I can see and as a result the quote above feels accurate. The beauty is not about what my tummy looks like, or any other part of me but how it all fits together, how all the atoms of me are put together.
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