Amazing Bodies

If you know me well, you know I’m a liberal arts girl through and through. I have a degree in Genocide, Human Rights, and Peace Action from a school that let me build my course of study with passion running the construction team. I was an “English and art” girl in high school. I would have flunked out of physics if my dear parents hadn’t let me drop the class a month in. And yet, I’ve always been fascinated by science. By the natural world. By people and animals and nature and how we all interact.

This past month I did something out of the ordinary for me. I stopped by the library and picked up An Immense World by Ed Yong. Two copies, so Alex and I could buddy-read. This Pulitzer Prize winning author would usually never make my reading list. I’ve strayed from non-fiction since college as I’ve re-learned how to read for ME instead of for a project. But I was convinced this time around… and quietly excited by the little monkey on the front cover.

Okay folks, I swallowed this book whole. I learned so much. This past week I’ve found myself getting closer to bees to try to pick up on their magnetic charge. I pay way more attention to dogs and their noses, watching as those side slits bring in WAY more scent than most other noses. I’m staring at birds. I’m questioning the motives of the animals around me. I’m thinking more deeply about my own eyes and the colors I see. I’m amazed. I’m amazed by bodies.

I want to first of all recommend this knockout of a book. Get cozy, give yourself some time, and dive in. Preferably, get it from your local library!

But then I want to take a minute just to bask in the fact that we have bodies… in whatever form they take. I certainly spend a lot of time criticizing mine. I know good and well how to pick out the parts that don’t work like they should. I rarely, if ever, think about what my body does when I’m not paying attention. My senses and the way I interact with the world. The sensitivity of my fingertips. The way my eyes work. Maybe you don’t have the best functioning eyes but man, do you have a kick butt thyroid! And just think about the work it does! Bodies! They are so cool!

I’m working on appreciating more. One of my tiny victories in the past coupe of years has been attempting to get more comfortable with bugs. I’m trying to squish fewer spiders and sputter away from fewer bees. I have a lovely anxiety med to thank for a lot of that. But the essence of it is getting more comfortable with the living world that I exist in. Recognizing more holistically that there is a whole world I’m lucky to be a tiny part of. And I think that maybe that has been the first step – to look at the beings around me, to recognize them in the smallest of moments. To appreciate their bodies. To think “wow, how cool”. And then to maybe give some of that wonder and grace to myself.

Bodies, friends. The “people” world loves to hate them. But how can you hate something that can do so much? For now, I’ll work on holding on to a bit more wonder and see where it takes me. Maybe you’ll do the same.

Ps. Fun fact for the day: the faces of manatees are incredibly sensitive to touch. As Yong says, they “explore everything face-first.” With thousands of whiskers (on their faces and bodies), they can feel just as well as human fingertips. Which, friends, is why they rub their faces on humans to get to know them. SCIENCE IS SO COOL.

Pss. Today’s cover photo is of the most beautiful humming bird I have ever seen… nearly 14 years ago now and taken on my Nikon.