Monday, June 29, 2009

Inspiration

Today, I feel inspired. I spent a good part of the morning staring at Dara Torres in this, her milk ad:
How awesome is she? And she's a mom! I love this ad because it shows that women have muscles and are also beautiful and work really hard and consume calories. She was probably airbrushed a lot, but I've watched her swim on tv. Moms kick ass! Look at that stomach, which once contained a human being. I love her.

Not since I received a photocopy of Brandy Chastain in 1999, when I first started playing rugby, have I loved a photo so much. I'll never forget the day Marcel handed the pictures out to us at the end of practice, the first time I ever finished a conditioning workout and discovered that my body could do things just as challenging as my brain could do. I've had it hanging on my wall ever since. I slid it right into the plastic frame that once held my creative writing national golden key award--previously my most treasured piece of paper. I feel like I get more from staring at Brandy.
You know, she's birthed babies, too. The most famous set of abdominals and biceps in the world (or at least in the world of women's athletics) have once contracted and squeezed out a baby. I keep telling my stomach that I can be like these women and have this powerful, athletic feat connect me to them.

Usually, my to-do list is rather intricate and involved and lengthy, with deadlines and various clients and appointments all over the place. Here is what it looks like now:

I feel like it's the most important and difficult thing I ever wrote on my wipe board. From what I've observed lately, women remember and can detail their birth stories the way avid sports fans can rattle off the statistics and weather conditions and scenarios of THE BIG GAME decades afterward. I wonder, if I were to ask them right now, whether Dara or Brandy would have more to say about labor/delivery or their shining moments in the athletic spotlight.

3 comments:

Amy said...

I love that you actually put that on your to-do list. That's one for the baby book, eh? Picture it: you and baby who has become somewhat grown, flipping through the pages, "That's when you were sooo important, Mommy put you on her to-do list!" Hahahaha.

Jane said...

Hey, were you thinking about this entry when we were talking on the phone a few hours before you posted this?

sarah said...

Thank you for this entry. I'm going to have to do the same thing in Nov (birth a baby) and am starting to get a little freaked out. Your post helped bring me back to earth.