Shame Free Blogging Day!

The lovely Arya over on Style Trumps Fashion, a student and friend of mine, is starting a new tradition this year: Shame Free Blogging.  After a recent incident of downright inappropriate and personal commenting on her blog, she was inspired to stand up and say "NO WAY will I allow you to shame me"--particularly when it comes to our bodies, and our confidence in it and love for it, it is too easy to fall prey to cruel intentions of others.  The internet (and the "blogosphere") is filled with trolls--thoughtless and insecure people who find some sense of power in their life by trying to bring others down or stir the shit.  And today, on Shame Free Blogging Day, I am saying:

We don't buy that crazy here. Peddle that shit elsewhere.

A little bit from Arya's blog about it:

"I am not ashamed of my body.  My body is strong, supple, and graceful.  It is firm in some places, and soft in others.  It rises to my demands (almost) without fail, whether I want to participate in a four-hour yoga workshop, make it through boot camp and two war zones, shimmy for two hours straight, make love with my husband, run for three miles, or stay up through the night with a woman in labor.  My body is shaped in a way that screams "WOMAN!", and I'm finally, blessedly, okay with enjoying that.

I will not be shamed."


If you have a blog, or even a Facebook page, where you would like to show solidarity for a shame-free experience on the internet, join us today by posting one of Arya's lovely badges on your blog, site, or page.

Live in the layers...

The Layers

Stanley Kunitz
I have walked through many lives,
some of them my own,
and I am not who I was,
though some principle of being
abides, from which I struggle
not to stray.
When I look behind,
as I am compelled to look
before I can gather strenth
to proceed on my journey,
I see the milestones dwindling
toward the horizon
and the slow fires trailing
from the abandoned camp-sites,
over which scavenger angels
wheel on heavy wings.


Oh, I have made myself a tribe
out of my true affections,
and my tribe is scattered!