Sometimes when I stand naked in front of my bathroom mirror I can see the goddess inside of me trying to emerge.  I marvel at the miraculous feminine body, at what it's capable of doing - at what mine has done.

My hips are wide because I've nurtured and carried children in my belly.  My pelvis created a cradle, a bony shelter for new human beings to form and grow.  The stretch marks on my hips are marks of honor, badges of womanhood.  They're a tribute to the capacity of human skin to accomodate new shapes and sizes.

My breasts are another miracle.  They sensed the infant's departure from my womb and made milk; they provided food for the new person.  They are an outward symbol of my femininity, my body's way of telling the world that I am a woman.  They're one of the first signs of impending womanhood during puberty and a source of endless fascination and delight to our male counterparts.

I look at my belly, at the smooth skin, the rounded flesh....and at my belly button, a reminder to me that I too came from a woman, that I was once a child fed by another's breast, an infant housed in a bony cradle soothed to sleep by my mother's heartbeat and rocked by her steps.

I look at my body and I see the goddess within; I see the goddess I could be (should be) and I wonder why I've been keeping her hidden for so long.  I should be celebrating her, embracing her....I should let her emerge, let her step to the front and let her be my face; the person I show to the world.

Every woman has a goddess within.  Why are we so concerned with hiding her?  Why do we insist on having flat bellies?  Why do we starve ourselves until we become androgynous, until our breasts are empty sacks - and then we fill them with silicone or saline balloons.  We have our goddess sucked out into sterile jars, we tuck her and lift her and flatten her into submission.  Why do we do this to ourselves? 

Why aren't we satisfied to simply let our goddess emerge?

I like how this goddess within me makes my body look.  I like that I have curves, that I look womanly. 

I'm going to let my goddess emerge.