Easy Beauty by Chloe Cooper Jones

I think this is an amazing story and a great way to reclaim her space in the world, using disability, motherhood and a lifelong search for beauty as her throughlines. Having grown up with a sibling in a wheelchair I have some sense of what it is like to be "other" in a world that favors homogeneity. The author was born with a rare congenital condition called sacral agenesis, and she has lived her entire life in a body that has taught her the deepest truths about pain, but also one that has placed her in the crosshairs of strangers’ pity and disgust. She is short, walks awkwardly, and stands out. Because her condition affects both her height and the way she moves through the world, her comfort within her body has always come with qualifiers: the dismissal of being “less than”; the oh-so-helpful admonishments of others; and even her own denials of her comfort in an effort to help others move past seeing her as only her disability. These judgments and denials come to a head when Jones becomes a mother herself - a feat that doctors had long told her was impossible, despite having no real reason to know so - and starts to notice that her sensitive, keenly observant child, Wolfgang, is modeling his approach to life after her own behaviors, and suffering for it. She begins the difficult, painful and nearly impossible task of turning her remarkable intelligence and curiosity inward to ask whether or not the experience of beauty can become an agent of change to help her become more present in her own life and with her family. She presents herself with all her warts and insecurities so that we can grapple with our own shortcomings. This is well worth reading and thinking about.