Stephen

Can be better landscape on phones

[Photos taken by Stephen – also staring Nancy and Frank]

I went back over the contributors to the project and their rationale for joining in. I must say my reasons are quite similar. So, I’m honoured to be part of the project, here is my contribution to fill the gap at 68

I’ve lived in New Zealand for 16 years but used to live in Brighton and so the project chimes with me.

After a particularly stressful time working for Brighton and Hove City Council, I needed a break, to get away before I burnt out completely. On a Wednesday I decided I needed to go; I tried to book a last-minute flight to Spain but the only thing available was a flight to Skiathos in Greece on the Friday. It nearly didn’t happen. In my stressed state I got to Gatwick and had forgotten my passport. I missed my flight and I had to travel back to Brighton to pick it up. The airline was very kind and rearranged a flight through Athens landing at 11pm that night and an onward flight to Skiathos at 6am.

I knew nothing of Skiathos except that it was in Greece and had a very nice well known beach, Little Banana. My accommodation host informed me it was a nudist beach and since I’d never been to a nudist beach I thought what the hell why not. I’d often sunbathed naked in my garden so nothing out of the ordinary.

I went to the beach very early next morning; not a soul there, the sun wasn’t even on the sand. I stripped off and went for a swim. The cool water was refreshing; the temperature overnight hadn’t dipped below 20C. I didn’t think I’d been in the water very long; daydreaming I looked up and suddenly there were about 20 people on the beach. My immediate reaction was shock; I’d never been naked in a mixed public situation before and so I thought everyone would be staring at me. Quite the contrary, no one was looking. The people were all ages, all shapes and sizes, they had no concern for me.

It took me only 20 minutes to realise no one cared about me being naked. Suddenly the stress and worry from work evaporated and I felt amazingly relaxed. Mid-morning a few people started their pre-brunch beach strolls and came up and engaged me in friendly conversation. Twenty-five years later I still have good friends from that meeting on the beach.

I look back on my holiday photos and have only one of me where I know I’m naked and that’s a picture from the waist up. When I look at my photos from the last few years, I can see the effect age has had on my body. I now have a bit of a pot belly, my bum has dropped and I have jowls around my neck.

But in the main I’m lucky to have aged gracefully and I’m happy with my body; so much so that I care not that people the world over will see my naked form. I’ve come to realise the old cliché, it’s my body, the only one I’m going to get, it’s unremarkable and everybody has one.

I consider myself lucky that I’m content with my body; I haven’t had to suffer from body shaming or bullying over the way I look. I’m greyer now, much more matter of fact about nudity and often garden naked, hike naked, swim naked, as you’ll see from the supplied photos. I wish there was more acceptance in the world that the human body isn’t pornographic, and people would focus on being kind to each other instead.

Stephen’s Offering

My offering is a photo of a pendant my father made for my mother. I inherited it when my father passed. He had found this pear shaped rock on Strangles beach in Cornwall. It has seams of white quartz, two of which cross in the middle – he said that they were mum and his destiny’s to cross paths. He polished it and put it on a leather cord for her. 

 

My parents were terrific parents and brought me up to be very broad minded, hence my belief in equality and diversity. They also shaped my relationship with my body and body image, hence the naturism. The pendant means so much to me. I’m going to get a cord reattached so that I can wear it.

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Join in by contacting me via my contacts page.

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