embracing willendorf, part 2
loving your body to health and fitness
by byron ballard

Last month, I introduced myself and told you a little about my life in transition, my life as Changing Woman. This month, I promised to give you specifics about my friend Willendorf and this program that is working for me as I love my body to health and fitness.

We’ve all seen her—the Paleolithic Playboy model with pendulous breasts, enormous hips and buttocks, legs that taper to a point. Her head is a curious flat mass of curls, her face—seemingly not the most important body part of this particular deity—is not visible.

When she was discovered in 1908, these relics were found all over Old Europe (that part of eastern Europe referred to as “New Europe” by the current Washington administration). They were called “Venuses” by archaeologists and anthropologists who thought they were Stone Age pornography.

As our view of our Ancestors gained sophistication, theories were promoted in which these small and ubiquitous statues were icons from a fertile age of Mother Goddess worship—”mother” goddess because the “Venus” figures were corpulent and proud and oh-so-obviously fertility figures. They are now generally called “goddesses” (small “g”) and she is called the goddess of Willendorf, after the Austrian town where she was found. Sometimes she’s even called “Willie”. She is big (though the actual piece is less than 5 inches long) and she is also beautiful, like each of us.

The key to success in this life-changing and life-affirming program is to love your body. I mean really love it—regarding yourself in the mirror with a feeling slightly better than revulsion just won’t do the trick. The barrier to this is deeply cultural. Americans live in a schizophrenic environment that honors thinness and health, while producing some of the fattest people on the planet. This dichotomy is strange but clearly illustrates the problematic relationship that we have with our bodies and the food we need to fuel them.

Let me state from the outset that my worldview and philosophy is earth-centered, Pagan. I won’t deal in sin or guilt or mortification of the flesh. I love my body and have loved it through many sizes and shapes and levels of fitness. I am a remarkable instrument, a highly adept and adaptable tool. I belong to a hardy and clever species and am connected on a cellular level to everything else.

Lofty words, Miss B, but how do they apply to me? Even if I can acknowledge this connection, how can I love my lumpy knees or my round stomach or my wide butt? What’s so lovable about any of those things? In these chapters, I’m going to give you permission to love your whole self.

This is a permit that is not granted by the media or the church or even your kith and kin. These entities want to control how you feel about your body for a number of reasons. By the time you finish these pages, you will have the authority to love yourself totally—to love your perfect, remarkable body to health and fitness. I won’t let magazines or statistics bully you. And I won’t let you bully yourself.

So, my dear, today—yes, today—choose one thing about your body that you adore. Your beautiful eyes, your strong calves, your long fingers. Don’t tell me there’s nothing--I don’t believe it. We all have that little thing we’re secretly proud of, that part that keeps us from despair during the bikini days of summer. Find it. Right now.

And love it, my dear. For a whole solid week, that love place that is beautiful in your eyes. And I think you’ll find when you acknowledge your love of that, you’ll find other parts that pass muster. Our goal is to love it all, but it takes time to cancel out the media messages and the tiny, persistent sound of that critical inner voice.

Next time, we’ll talk about those parts and discover where we go from here. Remember, if you want to comment or have questions, contact me at ballard@ceres-wnc.org. And, by the way, as of this writing, I’ve lost 72 pounds and am wearing a size 14 Levis. I actually had on a pair of 12’s a couple of days ago. Tight as a corset and unwearable, but somehow zipped and buttoned on my beautiful body. Thanks for letting me share.

Byron Ballard is an Asheville native, a playwright, a Witch (and a Wiccan priestess!) and a mom. When she’s not exercising and making endless large bowls of salad, she also enjoys hiking, gardening and traveling. She is one of the partners in Ancient Journeys and sings with the Greenwood Consort. Whew! She also works with a gaggle of gentlefolk at Accent on Books.