My body, at last, I claim you! I live here! I am not some disincarnate spirit using just any vehicle to get around. I live in the full, round, soft, juicy, wet, strong, agile, capable, Spirit-filled, nurturing, graceful, flowing, comforting, lovely, smooth, dancing, singing, playing, working, praying body of a woman!
For so many years I rejected my body; judged it because it isn’t perfect according to the standards of my culture. I have been unfaithful to it, letting other’s opinions turn me against it; allowing others to use it without love, without tenderness. Because I myself had rejected my body, I didn’t protect it; didn’t demand that it be treated like the precious gift that it is. My body, the temple of my soul, deserves better from me.
I re-claim this body. I re-claim these eyes and their vision; this mouth and its words; these arms and legs and their hugging and dancing. I re-claim these breasts and their magnificent fullness; I re-claim these wide, round hips and strong fleshy thighs and their walking on the earth. I re-claim this vagina and all its secret folds and this womb and its bleeding. I re-claim all of my body’s parts, named and unnamed. This body is a miracle; it is the first gift of the Creator to me – my birthday present. I take this body to have and to hold, in sickness and in health, to honor, love and cherish until death do us part. I am a woman re-claiming my body!