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 just a few 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.
A few 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 getting married and giving 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