Prose Poem on Body Image Kat Friedrich, March 2006

My body is a temple. My body is a shrine. It houses the cold winds of pain and the warm light of happiness. And I shelter a candle there, the light that keeps me moving on, the light that defies the odds that said I should not have been able to have a career or succeed. My body is my ally and my betrayer, my friend and my enemy.

I seek to shelter the light within my body so that it can grow into a consuming flame, a light that revitalizes, a light that can be a beacon for others to know that it is safe to be a woman, safe to be unafraid, safe to live within a body that is a rocky boat on seas of fortune in a country where we have no universal health care and there are no guarantees of a future Social Security.

Until then, I eat my sushi and reflect on the beauty my eyes can see, my ears can hear, my tongue taste, my mind understand. And I pray that others may enjoy the fleeting, impermanent Joy of Being.