Debi, better known as Doctor G, is my guest today.
Doctor G is a part-time family doctor and full time mom of four boys, she focuses on practical tools and teaching skills, not just dishing out advice. From one minute tips on making your life easier while building kids’ character to her downloadable guides (chores at every age, boundaries for tech use and more) Doctor G makes parenting more simple and more effective and I have sought her advice many times!
Debi’s letter to her body really touched a chord with me because it’s one that I should write. How many times have you heard, “your body is your temple?” It’s one of those ideas that sneak into your consciousness and you don’t know where you actually heard it.
Take a minute to appreciate your temple.
To my body,
I just want to say thanks.
Thank you for my childhood. A smattering of illnesses – I don’t think either of us can forget the particular panic of waking in the middle of the night with a raging ear infection, too little to understand what that sharp pain is. The chicken pox weren’t so bad (though I wish you hadn’t given it to my Dad – I was so scared when the ambulance came to take him to the hospital because he got them inside his lungs!); I wouldn’t eaten chicken til I was 5 or 6 after that. You really withstood the sprains and breaks and I am seriously sorry about all the sunburns. Sunscreen – who knew?
My teen years, well, I think we can both agree I should have exercised a little more. On the plus side, though, I didn’t give any illegal substances during that time. Strangely, I think there is a connection between those two facts. 😉
You really stood up to a lot in my twenties. You withstood the genetic pressure of my family’s mental illnesses, the abuse I heaped on you through my early divorce (not eating), med school (not sleeping) and my parents’ divorce (barely breathing).
In my thirties? Thank you more than words can say for my four pregnancies. It looked like that last one was a miscarriage (oh sure, YOU knew better, but how was *I* supposed to know?) when it turned out we lost a twin, but not the other. Hey, body, can you tell me if my precious little boy knows on some level that he started as one of two? Just wondering.
Anyway, it was a lot to ask of you, to grow and birth and then feed four babies in six years. It’s been a total of 10 years of pregnancy, labor and breastfeeding. Yours was the hard part, I got all the rewards. You’ve complained in only the most mild ways – changing shape to adjust, some pain here and there. Thanks for stepping up with the breast milk – there is no guarantee of that and I DO really appreciate it!
Now I’m in my forties, and you are still stepping up. This decade I particularly want to thank you for withstanding piggy back rides for 50 pound kids, wrestling with boys who are too old to “cuddle” if anyone is around, climbing into top bunks each night because no one else is around so the cuddle is welcomed. Thanks for sitting through outdoor sports events that go into overtime only if the weather is cold and rainy. Thank you for managing on less rest than you’d like when one of the other bodies in our house is sick.
Thank you for hands that help my patients feel more whole. Thank you for eyes that see what’s happening, and the extra ones in the back of my head. And thanks for the increase in my sex drive (my husband says to say thanks too)!
Thank you for healing the small and large insults you’ve withstood so far.
Now here’s the “ask.” Can you stick with me? I’m starting to realize, now that I really like me, and feel really comfortable inside you, that you are the key. Whether the next decades are great or hard depend in large part on you. So I’ll do my best to keep you tuned up, checked, vaccinated and moving. You let me know if there is something I need to pay more attention to, alright? I’m counting on you to help me give piggyback rides to grandkids someday!
Thank you for your patience as I’ve struggled to appreciate you.
All the best,
Debi
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What a wonderful love letter to your body, Deborah!
It truly is amazing, isn’t it, this vessel of our thoughts, dreams and love?
Alison,
I see hurt, healthy, sick, old and new bodies every day. Realized it was finally time to accept and appreciate my own.
How did I now know you had FOUR boys? You’re amazing! And so is your body! We should all write a letter like this and thank our bodies for all they do! 🙂
Elaine, I guess I don’t always advertise the insanity! 😉
I love this, and it is a great reminder of all the awesome thing our bodies do for us.
Thanks Jennifer. It’s hard to love them as they are, but helpful when we do.
Love Dr. G! What a great letter….
Thanks so much Sherri!
I adore this! Yes! Yes! And YES!
oxoxox
Sili, thank you so much – I know I’m preaching to the choir, here, but it’s helped me to think more positively!
I love this! Our bodies really are amazing, aren’t they?
They so are Kim!
Wow, 4 boys and she looks like that?! Amazing! It’s true, we all need to be more thankful of our bodies. They go through a lot and often they are under-appreciated. I do feel like every time I go to the gym, eat more veggies and fruits instead of junk food, have another glass of water, put on lotion, take a shower… etc…all those things are ways of saying “thanks”. 🙂
Leah,
That is probably the best way of all to say thanks. I’m pretty sure my body thinks I’m all talk some days!
This was soooo good!
I think I should write a letter to my body that doesn’t include all the abuse I heap on it on a minute-by-minute basis. My mind is a minefield.
And Debi, who knew we were so much alike, especially in the twenties!
Jennie,
That makes me want to sit down and talk to you even more than ever!