Four days before Andrea turned 19 and eight months before her death, she wrote this brief, but insightful observation:
If I can’t love me and my body how can I expect to love anyone else and know I deserve their love? Good question.
Good question indeed. Especially at the beginning of a new year when queries abound as to what "resolutions" we intend to make.
Two days ago I sat among a group of MFT Interns at the local school district asking them to have the courage to question our culture's faith in "dieting" and its "thin ideal." I asked them to look carefully not only at how they feel about their own bodies, but how they respond to their client's bodies as well. I encouraged them to read this article: "Beyond Lip Service: Confronting our prejudices against higher-weight clients" by Judith Matz.
Maybe the answer to what we "resolve" is as simple (and as monumental) as implied by Andrea's question: Making a concerted effort to cultivate love for ourselves and our bodies, every single day of the year.
Quote from the book, Andrea's Voice, Silenced by Bulimia (Gürze Books, 2006)
