I was delighted to look up and see this book on the shelf at my yoga studio yesterday. I used to have a copy in college when I was studying Alexander Technique and taking serious stock of what my body was doing - or, better yet, what it was supposed to be doing - when I was playing the flute. I never really got into coloring the pictures, but the book did make a great reference guide when I was evaluating how to breathe more deeply or untie the knots in my shoulders or teach my young students about embouchure. The book got lost somewhere along the way, but the knots sadly remained.My kids, quite naturally, have been asking a lot of questions about bodily functions and where babies come from, so I was more than happy to replenish my long lost copy of this book. I had just been telling them about it, in fact, and found it to be rather serendipitous to see it right there on the counter when I wasn't even looking for it. I love those moments.
What I wasn't prepared for was the glee from my kids when I pulled it out of the bag and told them what was in it:
"I want to see where the pee comes from!"
"Show me the brain, Mom!"
"What's a kidney?"
"Let me see the muscles!"
"You mean boys and girls have different parts on the inside too!?!"
While, in many ways, it's challenging for my kids to conceptualize the pictures on the page, it is still so much fun to reveal news things and clarify what they probably already knew about their bodies. My hope is that openness and discovery will only encourage them to be more comfortable in their own skin in ways that I'm only now beginning to understand about myself. Who knows, maybe one of them will even be inspired to become a doctor someday.
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