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After dropping off my children to camp this morning, another parent, who is an acquaintance, asked how I was doing. “How are you doing?” seems like one of the most loaded questions in the history of questions by the way and he asked because apparently I looked “harried” the other day (okay, he probably didn’t use that word, but in my head, that is what I heard).

I don’t know about you, but I love Summer, I love the pool, the beach, the warm sunshine, but right about now, I am just over it. The temperature outside is some ungodly number and it seems like showering is a waste of time because as I am running between air conditioned buildings to my air conditioned car, I am sweating like I have just finished a run. You know, that sweat, the one that rolls down your back and makes you just miserable?!

Most of us can trace an event in our past that shaped us, this event isn’t always happy or magical, it can often be painful and tragic. The saying goes, “Sticks and Stones may break my bones, but WORDS will never Hurt ME.” What utter rubbish, I can honestly say that I have never been hurt by anyone physically, but I can remember, on many occasions, where words made me cry, or caused me to consider if my life was worth living, or if I had the strength to carry on. Words hurt A LOT, but they also have the ability to heal.

I want to be the type of person who WANTS to be around a lot of people, who accepts invitations and actually goes, who can sit around and mindlessly talk and have a drink, who can stay awake past 10 pm (I think this is something I lost in the hospital the day I gave birth over a decade ago). I want to be fun and maybe sometimes to my kids I am, but to other adults, not so much.

We have covered the subject of loving our bodies before, but it is an important topic that bears the need to be repeated many times over. Two situations happened to me recently which sort of hit home the fact that we see ourselves in a COMPLETELY different light than other people see us.