Last night as I lay in bed eating an entire can of Beef-a-roni (I did walk yesterday so I’m entitled) and watching trash TV, I realized something. Out of the shows I watch, not one main character is overweight, chubby, or even normal looking. Examples, Desperate Housewives and Brothers&Sisters. I am obsessed with these shows, but look at the main characters. Gaby, stick thin (see ZERO % body fat), Bree weighs 100 pounds on her fattest day, Susan, well if you watched last week’s episode you’ll see where I’m coming from. Now please, don’t think I’m on a skinny person rant, because I’m not. I realize that what is on TV is not real life or healthy most times, I know this, but does my precious baby sister?
Everyone knows how I feel about that little girl. She is everything I prayed for and hoped for my entire life. I remember being 8 and asking my parents to have a baby (preferably a girl) and them laughing. Then again at 9, asking again. Again, they laughed. This sequence of events happened until I was 12 years old, and then God answered my prayer and there she was. I remember calling my friend Brittany and crying in the phone (yes I was a drama queen even at 12) and telling her I was getting my sister (again, no one was certain it was a girl, but I knew from the instant I was told mom was pregnant). When she was born I remember looking at her and thinking she was perfect in every way possible. She was the prettiest baby I’d ever seen. I stood at the window looking at that tiny, beautiful, red headed wonder that was in empty nursery. I knew I would love her forever. I carried her around for the whole 1st year of her life. Mom was scared that she would never learn to walk because I wouldn’t put her down long enough to try. But she was “my baby” and I wanted to keep her close to me at all times.
My sweet baby girl will be 11 the end of this month and that freaks me out. There are so many things that she will learn about in the next 5 years of her life. So many heartbreaks I want to keep her from. So many worldly things that I don’t want her to know about because I want her to stay the innocent being that she is now. Her life consists of dance shoes, and song books, and school musicals, and Barbie’s. Soon all of that will be replaced with boys (GASP), and school dances, and girl fights, and me always being wrong. Yall? I’m NOT prepared for that at all!!! So many things I want to tell her. So many things I’ve done that I DON’T want her to do. So many things I want her to learn from me, both good and bad.
But for now, I want her to know she’s beautiful. What she’s surrounded by tells her that she needs to be stick thin, and bitchy (I mean for real, watch TV for a minute and see the way those girls speak to their mother). I want her to know that she is PERFECT exactly the way she is. So what if she’s not the skinniest girl in the class? Who would realistically want that title, not me! She has SO many wonderful qualities that will last longer than beauty. She is SO smart. Girlfriend has brains. And not only is it book smart, she’s street smart too. And she can read people. She knows what is going on in the lives around her b/c she cares about people and asks about their lives. She has a willing spirit. She wants to help people who are less fortunate than her. She cares about the environment and God’s creatures. She works in the yard and loves animals. She is confident in who she is. If she wakes up and wants to wear zebra leggings, a neon green tutu, and bright converse shoes, she does, and she rocks it! (I on the other hand run screaming from all those things)
So what is the point of all this? I don’t really know, other than I want my sister and all the women in my life to know that what makes them PERFECT is their individuality (see Johnny Diaz “More Beautiful You”). And my sister, she’s an individual. I will never quit telling her how much I love her. She knows beyond of a doubt that “to the moon and back a million times” would not be a long enough distance to fit all my love for her in. And do I take comfort in that? You bet your neon tutu I do!
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