All about pictures...

Me and mama trying to hide our double chins!

Pictures. Pictures. Pictures! They are memories! Times you will never live through again. Times you can never get back! People you will never get back! I love pictures! Everyone knows that about me. What is bad is that my family puts up fits when it is picture time. Everyone seems to hate their pictures taken. So it is better if I can get the grand kids to take them or any body else but me to take them. They usually turn out better.  But then I am in some of them and I am not a big fan of seeing those because I am fat and looking older with wrinkles and stuff. That's the problem when you’re a few pounds heavier than you like (or more). Or older than you were. I completely understand how others feel. I get that same yucky feeling about myself when I think photos of me. Seeing myself in pictures actually produces the faintest sick feeling in my stomach. Isn’t it amazing we can see the beauty in our friends, sisters, mothers, and aunts without the slightest thought to any flaws . . . but we can obsess on our own imperfections? We don't want any documentation of our round faces. No pictures to show how we LOVE, how we laugh, how we are treasured by our families. How is it possible that a double chin or wrinkles can overpower the beauty of a woman cuddling a child? How does arm fat distract from the perfect shot of a spontaneous hug? In our warped minds pictures become frozen mirrors that we can stare at as we pick apart our features over and over again.

Can we agree to put the value of family over the value of fat? Can we just accept that the weight we’ve been trying to lose for 5 years might actually just be a part of what you look like? Can we acknowledge that the insecurities we have in our heads will never be a part of how our children, husbands, and friends see us? Can we just please let our loved ones remember the YOU they love?

Your children want pictures with their mom and dad.

Your husband wants pictures with his beautiful wife.

Your parents want pictures of the happy, successful, amazing kids they raised (ok, and more pictures of the grandkids while you’re at it)

So you’re feeling too fat to be photographed? Not the same as you did 10 years ago . . . Ok. But you’re the only one who notices. The rest of us are too caught up in loving you.

Pictures I've been too embarrassed to post.