I grew up among goddesses. My family moved to the West Indies soon after my birth. We lived in Trinidad until I was 9 years old. I knew without ever being told that my Trini nanny, Mama Ethel, was a goddess. Nearly six feet tall, she weighed at least 200 pounds. Her face shone like polished ebony, and her lap was the safest place I knew! Though I loved her best, Mama wasn’t the only goddess. Along the roads of rural Trinidad, gorgeous Creole and East Indian women swayed to market with baskets or water cans balanced on their heads, and babies bouncing on their hips. Curvy? You bet! Men whistled and hooted their delight in them as they passed. How rich and fine they were! The nymphs, slender European or North American women like my beautiful Canadian birth mother, Ruth Isabel, paled in comparison. I loved the native goddesses with their tropical complexions and sensuous shapes. By the time I reached my teens, we had moved to New York, where I finished high school and college. Goddesses were as scarce as hen’s teeth on my college campus! Girls with voluptuous figures hid them under baggy sweaters or sweatshirts. Since nymphs were admired, goddesses tried to starve themselves into fashionable shadows of their true selves. I fought my own battles. Neither nymph nor goddess, I was almost as tall as Mama Ethel – but skinny as a rake and nicknamed “Bird Legs.” I couldn’t get it right either. Forgetting the rich diversity of my West Indian childhood, I tried to plump up. Naturally I remained as thin as Ribby Ratsoup, the starveling rat in a children’s story. Fortunately, I met and married a man who thought I was beautiful as I was. We moved to Los Angeles, and raised a family of three children: two girls and a boy. My oldest daughter was a nymph; the youngest grew up to be a goddess. How do you raise a goddess in a town where you can never be too rich or too thin? Bombarded with messages that only “Thin is In”, a curvy girl has a tough time celebrating herself. Especially when Mom joins the enemy and starts packing her lunch box with carrot sticks! From the time she was 14, she struggled with her weight. Despite Amanda's struggles, she grew up to be a gifted singer and teacher who owned and ran a successful children’s musical theatre training company called STAGE KIDS. She’s a fabulous daughter, sister, and friend. I love to be with her! She makes me laugh; she makes me happy. The only thing she’s NOT is skinny. That worries her. It worries me even more. How can she fail to see how beautiful she is? I wished she could see herself as I saw her – as archetypal Woman. I remembered the goddesses of my childhood. How had I forgotten them? Why didn’t I share what I knew then with my daughter? I didn’t waste another minute. “You’re a GODDESS, not a nymph!” I cried. I made her my first Goddess Card. It was the beginning of a long series of love notes and affirmations I’ve created for my curvy girl, and for women everywhere in all their rich diversity. Women who’ve forgotten - as I did for a while, or who’ve never been told- that bodies come in all sizes and shapes, and ALL of them are gorgeous! Anne Baird June, 2001 Vancouver, BC CANADA.