Two Photos.
Twenty kilos and a whole life between two photos – and one word in quotation marks that never moved.
Two photos – she put them side by side on her channel, and the post is three lines long. In the first she weighs fifty kilos, smokes around the clock, doesn't love her life, and considers herself “fat”. In the second she weighs seventy, is happy, a mother, a wife – and considers herself “fat”. The photos are in the original post; the lines are below.
That's the whole insight, and she doesn't soften it with a resolution: the word in quotation marks never moved, while everything it claimed to be about changed completely. A sentence like that was never reporting on a body. The Blind Spot calls this the hidden pattern that keeps us at war with ourselves – and the first step it offers is exactly what Bella does here: seeing the pattern, out loud, without pretending it's already gone.
Three lines. Read them twice.
Photo BEFORE meeting my husband: I'm thin, 49–52 kg, permanently depressed, I smoked 24/7, didn't love life, didn't respect myself, considered myself “fat”.
Photo after marriage and birth: 70 kg. A happy mom, a wife, loving life; I don't smoke, don't drink alcohol, I consider myself “fat” and am trying to lose weight.
Thank you for reading.
If her words reached somewhere mine don't – good. That's what this blog is for. Take what fits and leave the rest.
– Jan