Being Bodacious: The One Where We Sing About...

If music be the food of love, play on
~ Shakespeare, Twelfth Night

Ally McBeal considered it.

Carol Burnett had a very famous one.

So did Lucille Ball. And Mary Tyler Moore.

A personal theme song.

And while those ladies of the small screen had songs that were associated with their programs on the telly, the lyrics, when you think about it, were fairly personal and descriptive.

There was a commercial a couple of years ago for some product or other that featured a man who had another dude that walked behind him, pulling a wagon carrying a boom box that played his personal theme song. Loved it. Not only for the humor value but because I’m enough of a diva to consider doing something like that.

A theme song should serve a couple of purposes, the way I see it. First, it should be a song YOU love. Not like, not tolerate, not think is just so-so. LOVE.

Second, it should be a song whose lyrics – and even the melody – should represent some part, some essence of you.

A song that makes you feel good.

Gives you confidence.

Lifts your spirits.

Highlights your bodaciousness.

So, my bodacious sistahs – this week, we all want to know what your personal theme song is… and why you chose it. Why it speaks to you and for you. How it makes you feel.

Remember what the late great Mama Cass said…
You gotta make your own kind of music
Sing your own special song
Make your own kind music
Even if nobody else sings along




There’s one difference though – I bet you’ll have lot of us (me to begin with) singing right along with you.

So let’s hear it y’all – sing it loud. Sing it proud.

It’s all about you.

Being Bodacious: The One Where We Talk About...

Pssst... this is a Post Rewind from a year ago, when I initially kicked off this whole Being Bodacious thing. Whether it's familiar or New To You, I think it's still a great exercise. If you're like me, you probably could use such a re-focusing reminder... have at it, y'all!

~~~~~~~~~~

Woman must not accept; she must challenge.

She must not be awed by that which has been built up around her;
she must reverence that woman in her which struggles for expression.
~ Margaret Sanger

*cue Don Pardo*
Previously on this blog...
I declared that this was going to be -- on a Take Two -- my year of living bodaciously. And that one of my goals was to make a difference. A bodacious difference.

Well, here’s my shot at that.

I’m a huge proponent and fan of my gender. I do volunteer work with my gender. I support causes affecting my gender. I genuinely (most of the time) like my gender.

We chicks really do have it going on.

However (and you had to know that was coming)… we women are unnecessarily hard and unsupportive of each other. And in turn, ourselves. It’s partly our nature (Hey! I can say that because I am a girlie), partly our environment and partly who else knows what. We women spend – no, we waste – time being contrary to one another, either directly or indirectly when that time and energy could be better spend doing something constructive. Life's tough enough without adding any extra unnecessary angst. Trust me.

Whew.

Does that make sense? It can get a little heady up here on my soap box.

In an attempt to make a small positive difference for my gender, I’ve decided to host a regular self-celebration for us girls. Yes, it’s a meme. But it’s a meme with a purpose.

We’re going to spend time Being Bodacious.

I’ll throw out a topic for discussion and exposition – something that will be thoughtful and insightful, a little funny (c’mon – it’s goofy me helming this after all) and completely constructive, celebratory and creative.

If there's interest, there will be a spot to share the link to your blog/your thoughts so we all can go check out your online home and… be supportive. Cheer you on. Have your back. Right now, just leave a comment with a link to your blog and your poetic thoughts on this matter.

See. Pretty nifty, huh…

So… onto our Bodacious Topic.

Finish the phrase: “One thing I love about my body is…”

I can hear y’all’s “ooooooooooos” right now.

Not playin' here. Told you.

If you do not tell the truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people.
~ Virginia Woolf

Yeah, this is a big one. You can blame Shape Magazine for putting the idea into my head. But I think it’s a great place to start this little journey we’re about to go on together.

If you’re like me, you can name 112864 things you do not like about your body. However, when it comes to spinning that onto the positive, it becomes a little more difficult. OK – a lot more difficult.

But it shouldn’t be hard. Or scary. Or painful.

We are wonderful. Head to toe. Skinny darlings and curvy goddesses alike. No, that’s not me BSing here. It’s the truth.

So let’s start with a little self-assessment. You might love your shoulders and the way they look in your bathing suit. Or your luscious, gloss-loving lips. Maybe it’s your fantastic, pedi-worthy toes.

Tell us about it. Don’t be shy. Toot that horn.

Share one thing you love about your body.

You can do it. Because you’re Bodacious.

One is not born a woman, one becomes one.
~ Simone de Beauvoir

The Year of Living Bodaciously: Take Two

Once upon a time, approximately 368 days ago, I declared 2010 to be my year of Living Bodaciously.

While I had great and earnest intentions, that didn't play out like I thought it would. Life, real and urgent, interfered and co-opted me in ways I never imagined. Will's ongoing health issues completely occupied and pre-occupied me. When one parents a special needs child with some rather complicated medical quirks, one's priorities are always gauged by those quirks. And last year, we had one quirky experience.

But. While The Eleven brings with it the Beast We Know (Will has some crazy infection centers in his ear region) it also brings a very aware and active medical entourage who are all working together (and dispensing antibiotics) to get him cleaned up and healthy.

So Mama here can now think about Being Bodacious once more. BAM!

I'm going to share my big old declarative post from last year again, since frankly, it still sums it all up for me. And I'm going to be talking about my evolving bocaciousness on a regular basis, with open invites for y'all to participate either here in the comments or -- better yet -- on your own blogs. Part of Being Bodacious is to encourage each other in our pursuits -- like writing.

This next part might look familiar. Or it might be a New To You thing. Regardless, enjoy and ponder. And start owning your bodaciousness -- 'cause we've all got beaucoup amounts of it to embrace and share.

~~~~~~~~~~

Bodacious.

Main Entry: bo·da·cious
Function: adjective
Etymology: probably blend of bold and audacious
Date: 1832
1. outright, unmistakable

2. remarkable, noteworthy
3. sexy, voluptuous

It’s rather a funny word, though, isn’t it – bodacious. Albeit with some great meanings across the board – yep, even the sexy and voluptuous part. Can’t be noble and upright all the time. (insert lascivious eyebrow raise here)

That’s what I’ve declared the next 365 days to be for me. Full of bodacious living.

How I’m going to be.
How I want the path I follow to be.
How I want the footsteps I leave behind to be.

Bodacious.

I asked some friends to give me one word they would like to see describe their take on The Eleven. Here’s what they told me:

Skinnier
Prosperous
Fulfilling
Awesome
Amazing
Improved
Success
Happy
Patriotic
Love
Happy
Lessons
Contentment
Ausgezeichnet
Employed
Lighter
Orgasmic
Opportunistic
Calm
Happier
Plurific
Peaceful
Non-Craptastic
Bacony
Excitement

That works, dontcha think? Got a word to add? Leave it in the comments. I’m curious to see what’s on your psyche.

What is it about the genesis of a new year – a series of days, hours, minutes, moments – that causes the collective humanity to assess themselves and set upon some course of self-improvement at the least and self-awareness ideally.

You got me.

I know, though, that for the right now, my gym will be full of people on a mission. Cigarettes abandoned. Calories counted. Order sought. Calendars streamlined.

Whether anyone will be able to maintain his or her personal quest for the next 525,600 minutes is one of those great unknowns. I’d like to think so. But just as the human condition prompts us to engage in self-improvement activity, it also gives us reason to stop, whether of our own doing or from the doing of outside, unavoidable forces.

At least we mean well.

So what am I going to do with myself here in the shiny and new framework known as the year MMXI? So glad you asked…

Have better posture and engage my core CONSTANTLY
Be more sassy
Do unto others…
Laugh every day
Engage in self-confidence, not self-defeat
Make a difference
Make a joyful noise
Pray more
Praise more
Thank more
Trust more
Achieve and better fitness goals -- then make new ones to tackle
Make my house a home, with an open door, full glass and engaging heart
Write, dammit – WRITE!

Most of all, though is that I want is to let The Eleven be a year of sustained passion – for creative ventures, relationships, myself and life as a whole and to cultivate the belief that passion translates to success by any and all definitions.

Let’s go do this thing called life, y’all, here in The Eleven.

You ready?

Being Bodacious: Chapter 7

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself any direction you choose.
You’re on your own. And you know what you know.
And YOU are the girl who’ll decide where to go...

~ Theodor Geisel

A friend of my parents recently unexpectedly passed away – a rare, weird blood disease turned very insidious. In celebration of his life, his widow and children hosted an informal get-together where friends and family could tell tales and toast to his memory. The many facets of his personality and his character unfolded as the cocktails flowed and the conversation accelerated. What is interesting (at least to me) is that he will be remembered for many different things to many different people – each person carrying a distinctive imprint of him in their memory and their hearts.

As I am wont to do, I’ve been thinking (being homebound with a sick kiddo has given me plenty of time for my favorite mental pastime) – this little story has started the wheels turning about mortality and legacy and how we each spend our individually unique time here on the planet…

So, my bodacious ones… here’s the point to ponder for the week:

If you were to be remembered for, let’s say, five things that were distinctively, positively **you**, what would they be.

Maybe you make an amazing piecrust. Or have a laugh that undoubtedly signals your delight. Perhaps you have a secret passion for trashy beach novels (not that I'd know anything about that...)

Ahem. This is not the place for any self-deprecation or negativity. This is the place to celebrate those things that are uniquely you – those things for which you want to be remembered.

Have at it – what are you waiting for? We can’t wait to be able to celebrate **you**

Being Bodacious: Chapter 6

It was my Labor Day weekend ritual as a teenager. Instead of celebrating the last days of “freedom” before the school bell rang on Tuesday morning, I found myself speed reading and writing to get my summer “homework assignments” done.

I perfected the art of procrastination at a very young age (ask my dad about helping me with a project about Samuel Gompers and John L. Lewis the Sunday at the end of Spring Break…) putting off things was something I just did. I put a lot of trust in my internal timer to know exactly how long it would take for me to complete something by the deadline.

Sure, trying to read The Scarlett Letter, An American Tragedy and The Old Man and the Sea in the span of three days may not have been the best idea I’d ever had, but at the extremely enlightened age of 16, it made some kind of weird, triumphant sense. Add an essay about “what I did over the summer” to the to-do list and you had a complete jumpstart from the lazy days of summer to academia.

Right now, we’re looking ahead to summer at Casa de Janey – our retrospective on what “we did over the summer” has yet to be written -- although here in the F-L-A, it feels like we’re already settled into at least the trapping of summer, with temperatures at July/August level and the constant hum of the air conditioner as the soundtrack. And as I get ready for the end of school for Young William, I’m doing the get-ready-for-the-season thing, picking up sunscreen and new beach towels and assessing the condition of our beach stuff.

So, Bodacious Ones, here’s a little point to ponder get the season rolling:

What do you do to get ready for summer? What says summer to you – music, food, clothes, activities, you name it…

Be sure to check in with the dashing Mr. Linky so we can come pay you and your blog a social call -- Bodacious chicks are nothing if not hospitable.

Being Bodacious: Chapter 5

How hard it is to escape from places. However carefully one goes they hold you - you leave little bits of yourself fluttering on the fences - like rags and shreds of your very life.
~ Katherine Mansfield

I suspect we all have places we love. Locations that mean something to us. Where we feel most like our authentic selves. Cities. Countries. Towns. No place. Every place. Wide open spaces. The beach. The mountains. The desert.

I had occasion earlier this year to spend an extended amount of time in my most favorite place in the world – Manhattan. While the weather was less than cooperative (blizzard, anyone?) just being in the city and embracing the pace of it, the feel of it, the essence of it was good for me. Deep down to my soul. I wrote and thought and rejuvenated.

So, here’s this week’s Bodacious Point to Ponder:

What place feeds your soul? Where do you feel most at home? Most creative? Most peaceful? Most like your authentic self? Any and all of the above…

Let the Bodacious Travelogue begin!

You can fall in love at first sight with a place as with a person. ~Alec Waugh

Being Bodacious: Chapter 4

Went to a concert last night. Rodrigo y Gabriela.

Great show – amazing musicians (both highly accomplished guitarists), with technical skills like I don’t think I’ve ever seen.

But what really struck me, especially about Gabriela, was the passion and joy with which she played. It radiated from her. It was infectious. In the way she played. In the way she moved. In the way she smiled. In the way she interacted with the audience. You couldn’t help but enjoy watching her perform because she was so damn delighted to be there. Doing her thing.

Got me thinking. Thinking bodaciously, that is.

So here’s my question of the moment, Bodacious Ones: What activity that you do/did/want to do gives you unbridled, gleeful joy? What’s your “thing?”

Don’t be shy. Don’t be embarrassed. Just be yourself. Let your light shine and share YOUR joy. We can't wait to hear about it.

WHOOOOOO!!!

Being Bodacious: Chapter 3

What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet...

What’s in a name? A hell of a lot, if you ask me.

A name is how you are identified. How you identify yourself. Often times, a name comes with a background or meaning or significance. Names are given with great care and thought.

So, my darling Bodacious Ones, let’s play the Name Game this week.

•Why were you given your name?

•What does it mean?

•Has your name influenced you as a person / your personality?

•What does your name mean to you?

Use these questions simply as a guide to tell us about the significance of your name – to you.

And for those of y’all who prefer to remain anonymous on your blog, please feel free to talk in general terms. No one needs to be uncomfortable with this little exercise. And like I always say – my blog, my rules. The same applies to all y’all. Tailor this one however you see fit. Coloring outside the lines is a favorite modus operandi of mine...

Well, who are you? (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?)
I really wanna know (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?)
Tell me, who are you? (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?)
'Cause I really wanna know (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?)

Being Bodacious: Chapter 2

If music be the food of love, play on
~ Shakespeare, Twelfth Night

Ally McBeal considered it.

Carol Burnett had a very famous one.

So did Lucille Ball. And Mary Tyler Moore.

A personal theme song.

And while those ladies of the small screen had songs that were associated with their programs on the telly, the lyrics, when you think about it, were fairly personal and descriptive.

There was a commercial a couple of years ago for some product or other that featured a man who had another dude that walked behind him, pulling a wagon carrying a boom box that played his personal theme song. Loved it. Not only for the humor value but because I’m enough of a diva to consider doing something like that.

A theme song should serve a couple of purposes, the way I see it. First, it should be a song YOU love. Not like, not tolerate, not think is just so-so. LOVE.

Second, it should be a song whose lyrics – and even the melody – should represent some part, some essence of you.

A song that makes you feel good.

Gives you confidence.

Lifts your spirits.

Highlights your bodaciousness.

So, my bodacious sistahs – this week, we all want to know what your personal theme song is… and why you chose it. Why it speaks to you and for you. How it makes you feel.

Remember what the late great Mama Cass said…
You gotta make your own kind of music
Sing your own special song
Make your own kind music
Even if nobody else sings along




There’s one difference though – I bet you’ll have lot of us (me to begin with) singing right along with you.

So let’s hear it y’all – sing it loud. Sing it proud.

It’s all about you.

I Am Bodacious: Chapter 1

You start out happy that you have no hips or boobs. All of a sudden you get them, and it feels sloppy. Then just when you start liking them, they start drooping.
~ Cindy Crawford

So.

Time for me to pony up – I’m the one who charged my girlies to spill on “the one thing I love about my body” after all. Need to put my mouth where my money is. Or something.

And after some thought – I have nice eyes and FABULOUS hair – I’ve decided that the one thing I really love about my body is…

My boobs. Tits. Breasts.

So many names, so many attributes

I’m a curvy girl – always have been, always will be. To paraphrase the frazzled effeminate hotel desk clerk in This Is Spinal Tap -- I’m just as God made me, y’all. I’m working like a madwoman to make myself curvy and healthy and I’d be very happy to get those curves down to a lovely shape.

My one fear is that I’m going to lose my bodacious ta-tas with all my get-healthy energy. So far, so good, though. Doing lots of pec exercises to keep things bouncing yet behaving.

But make no mistake – I am not a woman who defines herself by her chest.

I just happen to like what’s there.

And yes – they’re real. And, from what I’ve been told, they are spectacular.

Cultivate your curves--they may be dangerous but they won't be avoided.
~ Mae West

I received my best confirmation on the quality of my bodaciousness one evening spent with a gal pal dancing and cavorting at a gay club here in town. My décolletage was recognized, fawned over and got a little action even (grope!). The boys loved my girls. There you are.

I could wax poetical here about how the breasts are a vehicle for nutrition and sustenance for the young and talk about how fulfilling breast feeding was for me. But I can’t – because Will was so early my body never reacted the way a normal post-partum body does and despite my very best efforts, I never was able to adequately do the breast feeding thing. Although I do have a great story about working with the lactation specialist at the hospital and having my breast milk shoot across the room and spray a doctor who was observing. I think we were asked to step out of the NICU after that, because our giggles were more than a little disruptive.

Anyhoo.

My breasts, for me, define my physicality as a chick. They make me feel feminine and confident all at the same time. Sometimes they command attention. Sometimes they are just there to give me a boost (damn underwire). And sometimes they’re just a counterbalance for my uber-cerebral self.

So yeah. My boobs are one thing I love about my body. Curvy rules, y’all.

And like Shania says – man, I feel like a woman when we’re in synch.

Being Bodacious: Chapter 1

Woman must not accept; she must challenge.
She must not be awed by that which has been built up around her;
she must reverence that woman in her which struggles for expression.
~ Margaret Sanger

*cue Don Pardo*
Previously on this blog:
I declared, just as the calendar turned the page and became all shiny and new, that this was going to be my year of living bodaciously. And that one of my goals was to make a difference. A bodacious difference.

Well, here’s my first shot at that.

I’m a huge proponent and fan of my gender. I do volunteer work with my gender. I support causes affecting my gender. I genuinely (most of the time) like my gender.

We chicks really do have it going on.

However (and you had to know that was coming)… we women are unnecessarily hard and unsupportive of each other. And in turn, ourselves. It’s partly our nature (Hey! I can say that because I am a girlie), partly our environment and partly who else knows what. We women spend – no, we waste – time being contrary to one another, either directly or indirectly when that time and energy could be better spend doing something constructive. Life's tough enough without adding any extra unnecessary angst.

Whew.

Does that make sense? It can get a little heady up here on my soap box.

In an attempt to make a small positive difference for my gender, I’ve decided to host a weekly self-celebration for us girls. Yes, it’s a meme. But it’s a meme with a purpose.

We’re going to spend time once a week Being Bodacious.

I’ll throw out a topic for discussion and exposition – something that will be thoughtful and insightful, a little funny (c’mon – it’s goofy me helming this after all) and completely constructive, celebratory and creative.

There will be a spot to share the link to your blog/your thoughts so we all can go check out your online home and… be supportive. See. Pretty nifty, huh…

So… onto our Bodacious Topic for the week.

Finish the phrase: “One thing I love about my body is…”

I can hear y’all’s “ooooooooooos” right now.

Not messing around here.

If you do not tell the truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people.
~ Virginia Woolf

Yeah, this is a big one. You can blame Shape Magazine for putting the idea into my head. But I think it’s a great place to start this little journey we’re about to go on together.

If you’re like me, you can name 112864 things you do not like about your body. However, when it comes to spinning that onto the positive, it becomes a little more difficult. OK – a lot more difficult.

But it shouldn’t be hard. Or scary. Or painful.

We are wonderful. Head to toe. Skinny darlings and curvy goddesses alike. No, that’s not me BSing here. It’s the truth.

So let’s start with a little self-assessment. You might love your shoulders and the way they look in your bathing suit. Or your luscious, gloss-loving lips. Maybe it’s your fantastic, pedi-worthy toes.

Tell us about it. Don’t be shy. Toot that horn.

Share one thing you love about your body.

You can do it. Because you’re Bodacious.

One is not born a woman, one becomes one.
~ Simone de Beauvoir