| It's true. Maybe that will crush some ideals. Maybe there weren't any to begin with. It is one of the ways I combat age, how I deal with my numerous imperfections. While I may be full-figured, I am strong. While I am no stick, I am agile and limber and plan to stay that way. Someone told me once that staying flexible is easier than getting flexible, and I tend to believe that.
It's one of the things I do when I meet someone new, when a floor is available. I do it partly to stretch because at that point I need it and also to see how the other person reacts. I will go into a backbend from a standing position for no reason at all. More often than not, the person witnessing the event will end up joining me on the floor in a variety of positions, as though I have lifted a veil of discomfort.
And I realize, only in those moments, that most people are surprised by such an act, that it makes things less awkward or odd. And I also realize that we don't make contact with our own bodies nearly enough, that we don't make enough excuses to touch our own feet, to feel our own muscles underneath us. We don't give or receive massages as much as we should, as we deserve. The conservation of time that we find in our convenient lifestyles leaves out so much, necessary contact with our own bodies that I think we almost forget we have them. | 
