Monday’s Meditation: On Finding Something To Love About My Ugly Knees

July 23, 2018

Note to self: gratitude is my superpower.

Something you should know about me (I’m sorry to have kept it from you so long) is that I have what some might deem “objectively ugly knees.”

This is a commonly held fact among those who know me best, right up there with my full first name and eye color.

In high school, we had a nickname for my knees, which I won’t disclose here in deference to the famous actress with whom I share the physical characteristic.

Even City has reluctantly agreed on multiple occasions that they are “not your finest asset.”

Where most people have sexily structured bone-domes, I have something more closely resembling the plump, convex, filled portion of a ravioli; you’re certain something is happening underneath, but there’s really no telling what the bubble contains. Could be bone, could be spinach and ricotta.

The wiser part of me knows that beauty is subjective, despite what marketers would have us believe, and that just because my patellas are severely under-represented in the media does not, in fact, mean that they are necessarily hideous. But much as I try to tell myself this, and as far along as I’ve come in believing it, a lack of pride in my knees lingers.

But they aren’t going anywhere anytime soon (fingers crossed!). Their likeness to the surface of the moon does not seem to wane with the passing of years. I’m out here finding the shape of a face or a jumping cow in my lumpy knee skin just like I was ten years ago.

I suppose I could get a knee-lift. I’ve never actually googled that phrase, but I’d be surprised if such a thing didn’t exist. But that prospect feels like a whole lot of anesthesia to go through for a pair of perfectly good kneecaps.

Until I can truly see the beauty in these bad boys, it seems to me I have two choices. The first is to continue to lament having been born with such un-chiseled leg-hinges. The second is to find something else to love about them.

Guess what? Ugly or beautiful, my knees work. Never given me a lick of trouble. I bend and contort my legs in all sorts of strange directions and they don’t let out so much as a whimper or a creak. And I spent years as a runner!

And something else? These joints are mine. They are an integral component of my physical form, which, itself, is the vehicle for my spiritual fulfillment. That alone is reason to celebrate them.

When I really venture down that line of thought, it occurs to me that my knees are damn-near majestic. They are ingeniously, divinely designed creations and they have, not once, let me (fall) down.

Turns out, I might be obsessed with my knees. I might start a K-caps fan club.

It can take time for us to fully eradicate a negative thought about something, anything, in our lives. But we can conceptualize a new, positive thought to hold more primarily at any moment we choose.

And if there is one thing we can count on, it’s that, if we’re open to adopting a different mindset, we will find there is no shortage of love to acknowledge.

Put more succinctly, our task is to continually abandon thoughts of judgment, fear and negativity, and return to a state of gratitude, instead.

From that perspective, whether my knees are ugly is irrelevant. What is relevant is that they serve me exactly as they’re meant to, and that, in and of itself, is a beautiful thing.

2 Comments

  1. susan on July 23, 2018 at 5:14 am

    <3 LLK 4EVA <3

  2. […] you have strange but fully functioning knees, and/or a curvy bottom half, and/or you generally hate wearing shorts, these are the shorts for […]

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2 Comments

  1. susan on July 23, 2018 at 5:14 am

    <3 LLK 4EVA <3

  2. […] you have strange but fully functioning knees, and/or a curvy bottom half, and/or you generally hate wearing shorts, these are the shorts for […]

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