Alison Sudol Instagram – in another life, before I met this wonderful man, before our two incredible children shook my heart until the walls fell down, I used to go to beautiful places, sure. I had so much time – time to do whatever I wanted whenever I felt like it, and my stretched out belly didn’t hang over my swimsuit like a baggy old jumper (though I thought it did – ha, i say. ha) and I wasted so much not being able to be present or grateful. I spent so much time locked in my head, criticizing my body, my choices, so often feeling lonely and lost and outside of my body. Now, I am rarely alone, a soft, warm, ravenous baby usually on my boob (making picture-taking or doing anything at all very challenging), or a squirming toddler on my hip screaming tidy tidy tidy awaaaay to the Frère Jacques melody (an unbelievably sticky earworm despite only having two words- sorry everyone at our hotel and in the surrounding area), and I often have to make choices like … do I shave my legs or brush my teeth (or oops neither) – this all plus the baby was sick and we had to try and navigate the emergency room in a hospital an hour away where we don’t speak the language and oh the toddler melted down for the four hundredth time because she wanted to wear pink leather trainers on the beach which would most definitely not be a good idea (try explaining this to a yowling two year old)… but I have never, ever had a better holiday, or felt more in my sweet, battered body or my life. the gifts that a family has given me are continually surprising, often unbelievably funny, and more beautiful than I could have ever hoped it would be. ** Tom has just pointed out that calling my belly a baggy old jumper is being incredibly mean to my body! Oh yes. It is. Self- talk still a work in progress!