Todays challenge:

Stand in front of the mirror for five minutes and focus on at least five things that you love about yourself. Write them down in your journal.

I was a little concerned that it was only 5 minutes – and I was more concerned that it didn’t actually say naked, but, I took that as a given….

Initially, I couldn’t get a good view as there was some fat old guy standing in front of me.  When I finally managed to peak around the dugong that had beached itself in front of me I discovered I am a pretty attractive man.

I can understand why men want to be me and chicks dig me… they are after all, only human.

One must remember that this is the second day in my gratitude challenge which is focusing on me… I prefer in any period such as this that all days are focused on me, but, as ‘Effi’ in the old TV show Acropolis Now said “beauty is a curse, and I have it!”

So back to me and the mirror – make that mirrors as one was just not enough.. take that as you will!  I thought I should work my way down from my head to my toes – remember that looking at the sun in its entirety can blind you.  I initially tried to use one of those eclipse peep hole cameras but couldn’t get it aligned properly – more about my arse later….

One
I concentrated on my eyes… I was there for about 20 minutes looking left, and looking right, up, down, trying to catch my eyes moving in the mirror (admit it you have all tried!) before I realised that a lot of the time when I have looked in the mirror (other than in doing the above experiment) you do not actually look at your eyes.  You look where you are shaving, you look at the hair you are combing – but, do you ever stare into your own eyes.  Well, today I did.  It was interesting because you cant look at both of them at the same time – which of course doesn’t matters as when you swap you cant see your eyes moving anyway.  I love my eyes not only for what they see, but because I am grateful I have them and I can see.

Two
In the process of checking our my head, I did notice that my ears are rather prominent.  Something that to those who know me will know – they are like a couple of dinner plates attached to either side of my head.  When I was a baby my Mum once dropped me and I just glided to the ground.  But, as much as I wanted my ears pinned back, I have had then pierced several time (thinking about that now why would I want to adorn my ears with things that would draw peoples attention to them?) and have listened to a lot of shit, heard a lot of sad stories and listened to a myriad of good a bad jokes:  they have taken me through decades of music and now always have that slight buzz from tinnitus…  I am grateful for my ears – I have even learned to love their enormity.

Three
I didn’t dwell on my narrow shoulders, man boob chest, or mono abdominal muscle – I went straight to my arms – well one arm in particular – my right arm, no left, hang on no right…  just above the inside of my elbow is a 2 cm scar, still very prominent with the three stitch holes prominent on each side.  This was an operation that I had when I was about 8 years old to see if I had a hole in my heart.  I was awake and they inserted a tube through this cut in my arm to explore my heart – no hole (other than the one left in my arm).  I like this little, old fashioned scar, I am grateful that it reminds me that I do have a heart and it doesn’t have a hole in it.

Four
My dick – all me love their dicks!

Five
I have a scar on my knee (not from the above loved body part hitting it I might add) from a push bike accident when I was a kid.  It reminds me of how much I loved being a kid.  I am grateful that I had a good childhood and great parents – this little scar reminds me of it all the time – I love it.

So, I wrote them down – the five things that I like about my body.  But, to me this is a silly gratitude challenge.  My body is just something I have.  It is my cover, the walking around bit – looking at it in the mirror and saying what bits you love, is frankly, irrelevant; it is just a continuation of us being grateful for something that doesn’t matter – our looks.