OK, I have no Kwanzaa-celebrating rights whatsoever, but I AM half Jewish, half Presbyterian. We celebrated Hanukkah and Christmas both, growing up. I mean, just for the record.
Now! On to the list:
1. I want you to look in the mirror each day and identify one magnificent, unique, amazing thing about your own body.
2. I want you to accept that “skinny” and “healthy” are not synonyms.
3. I want you to learn what flatters your angles and curves.
4. I want you to utilize clothes that help you look your best instead of lamenting the fact that you can’t rock every style.
5. I want you to give another woman a genuine compliment every single day.
6. I want you to be kind and tender with your body, and forgive it when it doesn’t do exactly what you want it to.
7. I want you to practice recognizing beauty in all human beings, not just models and celebrities or people who look like them.
8. I want you to feel grateful for the bounty of your body instead of feeling resentful about its supposed shortcomings.
9. I want you to choose confidence and accept pride and radiate self-respect because you’ve learned to recognize how beautiful you are.
10. I want you to tell me all about it when you need help remembering how beautiful you are so that I can find a way to remind you.
Don’t worry, I’ve got a birthday coming up in January. I’ll hit you all with a deeply selfish list a little later. 
Image courtesy roboppy.
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{ 22 comments… read them below or add one }
Thank you for this uplifting post. What a great gift!
That was a nice and sane list
It would be great if many women would actually give that to you and themselves as a present…
My life got a lot better when at first I managed to accept I wasn’t going to be “thin-thin”, but it got even better when I changed the whole though into feeling I don’t have to accept any such thing; there is nothing about it to accept, because I wouldn’t want to be a stick.
Your posts are always so beautiful, Sal – this one particularly made my morning. I feel the need to print this out, and stick it on my wall – in fact, I think I might! xoxo
Thought I ought to alert you to Boden sale!
Have a happy hybrid celebration x
Gurrrrl— I’m starting to think we may be bloggy twins, because not only am I half Jewish/half Presb (my mom used to be Presbyterian before she became an atheist) I also have a birthday in January. 17th, to be precise! You?
I hereby declare that Spandexpony and I are SUPER AWESOME CAPRICORN TWINS BOTH BORN ON JANUARY 17.
Hahahaha. That is just nuts.
Such an inspiring post. Thanks for the reminder Sal!
YOU are adorable.
I almost didn’t click on my link to this post because I expected a conventional wish list — what a glorious surprise!
Oh yes. I like this list very much. It makes ‘a new moleskine diary’ seem very selfish!
SUPER AWESOME CAPRICORN TWINS?
Wonder Twin Powers, Activate!
And I want you to keep on inspiring me to do amazing things! HAPPY HOLIDAYS <3
Nice try, disguising your “wishlist” as a bunch of ways for us to feel better about ourselves. ;D
That is a fantastic list. I want to know how to do all these things. I am printing this one too.
Woah times woah divided by unh-unh to the square root of holy crap! We should, as Middle Aged Woman suggests, combine our Wonder Twin Powers on this and do something epic! Relatively.
wow, what a great list! it’s a good reminder to love yourself and appreciate what you’ve been blessed with. thank you for posting this!
oh, and thank you so much for adding me to your blog list! i will add your site to mine, as well.
HI Gorgeous,
Hammie here; skyvving off while signed into the work blog.
Great list, I am eating a day old brownie reading it and visualising adding to my curves.
Thankyou and Happy Festivus to you To Sal!
xx
(having brunch with a Muslim friend so don’t forget Id!)
Right now.. I can read this list feeling pretty good about myself as I ran for an hour while watching the most dramatic 1st episode of the West Wing’s season 2…
You’re a sweetie Sal!
Oh my lovely Sal, you’re really an angel in my life!!!!
Thank you so much for all your support in everything.
Love
xoxo
Hmmm…. I too have a bday in January
Aww lovely post
gorgeous article – now I feel bad about wanting a Nintendo and some laundry baskets for Christmas…
I try to send one of my girlfriends a text message every day telling them how wonderful they are. That way they have a easy accessible reminder of how gorgeous they are.
Now I just have to be patient and wait for my flabby tummy to recede instead of wondering whether I can girdle it..