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4.05.2012

cleaning the closet.



i attempted to clean out my closet last night.

i'm a big fan of cleaning. or sorting and moving around and making piles--this to goodwill, this for a friend, this for no one else to ever have to see. ever.

i have a wonderful closet. filled with delicious and vibrant pieces. but much like my mind i utilize such a small portion of it. so i approached it last night determined to be ruthless in my weeding process. doesn't look good? get rid of it. doesn't have good memories? toss.

this is a luxury. i know that. i am tremendously spoiled in many, many ways. and the extravagance of looking at my closet through this lens is not lost on me.

given my history (that wily, little eating disorder that ate up six years of my life) i have a tenuous relationship with clothing. a friend came over recently to help me sort through and put all the pieces together in new and inventive ways (she has enviable fashion sense and sees things in ways i simply don't) and as we were pulling piece after piece there came a discovery.

why does so much of this stuff still have the original tags on it? kim asked.


i have a beautiful lace skirt that i got end of my junior year of high school. still has its tags.
that's like nine years. it's in perfect condition and not out of style and i have every intention of wearing it. and i can now (meaning, it fits) and that's a huge triumph for me.
but seriously, nine years?
oh hell.

and that's just the tip of the iceberg.

for so long i bought clothes thinking, well, five pounds from now it'll look great. (more often the thought was, ten or fifteen--i was optimistic and deeply, deeply unwell).

and so there i was last night, trying on nearly every item of clothing i own, attempting to look objectively--does this look good, is it wearing around the edges? no, look again. does it actually look good or is it just that it looks better than it did before?


i did make a pile of clothes to move on from. luckily, shockingly, it was not terribly large. i have some beautiful pieces with real staying power. and i resolved to wear more of them. to let my staple, go-to loves stay on the hanger more often than usual. to remove all those tags and wear the clothes that for years i thought, i'll be more courageous when i'm comfortable in my own skin. 


there's more courage now, sure, but it has little do with looking (or thinking i look) better and much to do with appreciating where i am and who i am and that my personal brand of beauty has very little to do with the size of my hips. don't get me wrong--it has some to do with the size of my hips--but these hips i got here now, i didn't get 'em from dieting. i didn't get 'em from counting calories or cutting carbs or spending hours upon hours on the stair master. i got 'em from years (yes, years!) of eating well and healthfully day in and day out. i got 'em from going to the gym and going to physique because i know that my body needs to be challenged, because i wanted to build bone density and improve heart health. i got 'em and they're mine and they're not perfect and yes, okay, sometimes i wish they were slimmer, but in the end, they're pretty damn good.

and tomorrow these hips of mine might look just a bit different. and it'll probably have nothing to do with anything i've eaten and everything to do with the fact that our bodies change. we age, we mature, we prepare to bear children. life.

the thing that really struck me last night--me laying on top of all those beautiful clothes, on top of my bed, halfway through the process--was that: some of the items, while the initial memory they conjured was anything but good, i found myself unwilling and unable to let go.

because the memory was not just not good. it was also sweet and redemptive and important. some of the worst--the absolute worst moments and phases of my life--were filled with some of the greatest love. i look back on those times and remember that the love of my family was electric--tangible.

i have a dress that at this point is just a little too big. it was like ten bucks from H&M but it's worn really well. now i pull it out when i'm feeling not-my-best. so i should just toss it, no? well,  i tried it on last night, knowing full well i got it when i was sad and ashamed of my rounded stomach, but standing there, studying myself in it , i knew i couldn't yet let it go. because that's the dress i was wearing when a man i once loved pushed the navy fabric this way and that to get to all the best parts of me. revealing the beauty of my body in a way that mirrors have never been able.

this is all to say: it's not so easy. there is no black and white to the story. just  a lot of gray. i can feel that this chapter of my life is really closing. the time is upon me. and i've so long waited and wished and hoped for this, but there is still the loss of it.



18 comments:

stephanie said...

Love the new look of your blog aaaand I love this post, as usual :)

stefanie hurtado said...

my god, there you go with another heart-wrenching post. i admire and appreciate your openness about your eating disorder. it's an issue i've also overcome, but have yet to speak with more than one person about. you are oh so strong and inspirational. thank you for this.

colleen said...

random but thank you for mentioning bone density! not enough women think about this.

more relevant - this was beautiful. thank you.

mattie said...

Have you been reading cjanekendrick.com lately? She just wrote two posts on the same subject. Really good stuff. Check it out.

Unknown said...

I loved these words--and it has been a long journey but you are getting there :)

Jessica said...

Somehow everything you write reaches into my soul. How do you do it?

Anonymous said...

love it.

Dee Paulino said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Harley said...

your voice is so uniquely yours. clothes really symbolize so much in our lives. this will sound dumb but i always think about the quote from the devil wears prada...

"And what they did, what they created was greater than art because you live your life in it."

how true! we attach memories to these things. allow them to influence how we feel and act.

you are brave. thanks for sharing.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for being so candid in your writing. As someone who also had an eating disorder in the past, I appreciate this post and can empathize with what you say. So thank you.

jennyjones said...

thank you thank you thank you for your words. every word.

Maria Larsen said...

So beautifully written. You really do have a great way with words. You look beautiful, and happy.

Alexa said...

(sigh)

Catherine said...

you wrote: " i can feel that this chapter of my life is really closing. the time is upon me. and i've so long waited and wished and hoped for this, but there is still the loss of it."

so poignant. my therapist recently encouraged me to grieve the loss of something in my life as i finally learned to let it go. this thing was preventing me from growing into the woman i longed to be. there is something comfortable in what we know, no matter how destructive it might be. so grieve it and mark the loss as you turn the corner into this new chapter of your life. beautiful post.

ritika said...

you inspire me in more ways than i can possibly count, you inspire me to be open, tackle issues of body and otherwise, to write more beautifully, to enjoy the present. to be in the present.

Francesca Forzoni said...

thank you for this x

http://forzoni.blogspot.co.uk/

Nessa @{Casa Braaflat} said...

it takes a lot of courage to open up on your blog. and for that i admire you.

Elise said...

thanks for your brave use of language and heart. it's so very encouraging.