(All images of these 3 beautiful women by Jade Beall)

I had the tremendous honor of photographing these gorgeous women a few weeks ago. It was not in the plan to do nudes, but somehow these ladies decided to entrust me with their precious vulnerability and the results give me such abundant inspiration! I simply LOVED seeing several beautiful bodies next to one another because it's just so obvious that diversity IS truly exquisite!

While I was editing these photos, I was reflecting on how when I am so in love with my body, as I am about 98% of the time these days after years of committing to a dedicated self-love practice, I cannot help but be in awe and often moved to tears of by the exquisiteness of other women. What have I done with the lies that I have have been force-fed that I should compare myself to others and strive to change something about me and wish to be someone else other than my own precious self? I have uprooted those toxic beliefs from the rich soil of my soul and I have thrown it into the compost bin. I am done with self-suffering. I say YES to loving me on my good days and YES to loving me on my less than good days and I LOVE noticing, commenting and praising the beauty of every single woman that I walk past on 4th avenue and that stands bare before my lens.

I am so very honored that these 3 gorgeous women allowed me to share these images with all of you. It was not an easy decision for them, especially since 2 of the three still nurse their older toddlers and I have recently discovered that it's a controversial topic for many. Thank you beautiful sisters for being vulnerable in the name of healing for us all!

From Sarah Tarver-Wahlquist (on the left):

Sisterhood

We three sister friends had just taken off our shirts when my daughter started to bleed all over the floor. I’ll back up -- Amy and Lila had called me over about 20 minutes before, saying they were at Jade’s studio and wanted more friends in the pictures. The three of us have been friends and neighbors for several years, supporting one another as friends and mothers through joys, losses, and the everyday realities of parenting. My daughter Hazel and I jumped in the car and showed up a few minutes later. After warming up with some family and friend shots, we decided to go bare-chested and get our arms around each other. My heart and body filled with gratitude at this physical closeness, this manifestation of all of the times, emotionally, intellectually, and logistically, that we lean on one another each day.

As we posed together, our children ran about the room swinging silks, like little dragons dragging colors behind them. But just as I was feeling like a real bad-ass-topless-sister wonder woman, my daughter tripped on something and hit her foot, opening a scab that started bleeding quite dramatically.

At the sound of her cries and the sight of her blood, we mamas leapt into action. I ran to Hazel, as the other women went looking for first aid kits, paper towels, items to soothe and distract. It did not matter that we were topless, our breasts swinging about as we hurried to and fro to clean the blood from the floor; it did not matter that our spell of communing before the camera had been broken. What mattered was that one of our children was in need, and that we are friends, mothers, and sisters, and this is what we do. We do not pause to cover our breasts, we do not worry if blood gets on our clothes, we simply help.

It felt serendipitous that such a little event should happen in the midst of our session together, that I would be reminded of how quickly my friends, my sisters, run to help my little girl, treating her just as they do their own.

**Sarah Tarver-Wahlquist who is a mama to two feisty kids with one more expected in January. She is Managing Editor at SQUAT Birth Journal.