Skip to main content

Things Aren't Always What They Seem to Be

Sometimes things are not the way they seem to be. In the fall of the year that I enrolled in the Extraordinary Women course, I needed to lose some weight. I looked around my class and chose weak-willed Becky to accompany me in my short term goal. Why? Because I knew I could win. She liked the idea of my challenge and liked the prize even better. Our goal was 20 lbs by Christmas and the loser had to take the winner out for a holiday dinner at a nice restaurant, the kind where you dine with cloth tablecloths. During our months of weight loss, the whole class became involved in cheering us on.

One evening, I decided to do some grocery shopping before class. Even after shopping, it was too early to go to class so I decided to stop at the grocery store deli/bakery and get a bite to eat for my supper. There was only one elderly gentleman there, also eating. The deli clerk asked me what I would like to drink with my one piece of chicken breast. I hesitated. Just water, I replied. She gave me a cup and for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out how to use the water spigot. That nice man was watching me and got up to help me. As I ate my supper, I reviewed my notes for class and noticed that the woman from the bakery walked over to the man and gave him a little paper plate of cookies. How cute, I thought. They must be old friends. As the gentleman finished his meal and got up to leave,he passed by my table placing the plate of cookies in front of me. “She gave me three, and I ate one and want to give the rest to you.” He was gone so fast that I could not explain about the weight challenge and how I wanted to beat Becky. Then I wondered what he must have thought as he watched me that evening. Maybe he thought I was broke because I ate such a measly little supper. Maybe he was trying to keep me from starving.

Becky hired a coach and lost 25 pounds to my eight just two weeks before Christmas. The whole class said nice things to us like “you are both winners” even though Becky beat the pants off me. We did choose a nice restaurant and, to our surprise, the whole class joined us. I’ll never forget the coupon that Tina, seated across from me, slipped into my purse. It was one of those “buy a dinner and get another one free” deals that she received in the mail to promote this new classy eating place in town. The girl next to Tina also got one in the mail and the two of them shared that coupon. It gets better. At that night’s dinner party, Becky shared with us not only her weight loss victory but the healing that took place as a result. Changing her diet caused her Fibromyalgia to go into remission. And she hadn’t had a headache for months! We all clapped.

Things aren’t always what they seem to be. Oh, by the way, I ate the plate of cookies that man left at my table.

Comments

  1. great post! Losing weight is hard. I keep losing the same 15 lbs but it keeps finding me.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Spiritual Sundays ~ Flamboyant Love

I was shopping for a birthday card during my lunch hour last week when I overheard an elderly woman in the card aisle talking to her niece, a woman about my age. Here is what she said: “ I threw out all my cards. They never meant those words anyway .” Lots of laughter followed. How sad I thought to be unable to receive the love sent to her in the sentiments of a card. This incident got me thinking about the love of God and resolving to embrace it when it is offered to me. It doesn’t matter if I think I’m worthy of such extravagant love; He thinks so! In contrast, just a day later I received one of those gorgeous hand-crafted cards in the mail from my friend, Kay, who loves paper crafting. It was so pretty and love and joy just oozed out of it when I opened it. This is a sample of her designs at Creativity is Good. Kay wrote a beautiful note to me in the card reminding me of God’s tender love for me. She ended her thoughts with “The God of the universe loves us more than we can ever f...

Holiday Movie Comes to Life

It’s uncanny when a new holiday movie comes out and resembles your personal life.   I came clean to my husband on that drive to the Harkins in Sedona confessing that the movie got bad ratings.   It isn’t the type of movie that he would choose to see in the first place.   Rotten Tomatoes gave it one star.   My prince charming replied:   “ Let’s see what we think of it and rate it ourselves.”   Yes!   High five to his palm! It started out as a fun afternoon date.   It would have been perfect if the lady directly in front of me didn’t have on super-strength perfume.   Smells can be troublesome when you’re prone to headaches.   I stuck my head in a big bucket of buttered popcorn; you know-- to alleviate her fragrance, because popcorn smell is less offensive.   What else is a girl like me to do? We named the genre “drama with comedy.”   Cast of characters acted like the typical family scene at Christmas tim...

Abba's Lap

I noticed a behavior pattern in little Amy, twenty months old, that I want to imitate.  She moves fast engaging in one toddler activity after another spinning like a whirlwind from one room to another.  Yet, she pauses,  intermittently , long enough to get refreshed.   I want to be like this grandchild of mine because she knows where to go and how to get comforted. Amy moves at record speed, putting more miles on a pedometer in one hour than my accumulated weekly workouts at the gym.  She can build a skyscraper so tall, I wonder why those bright pink Lego’s don’t topple to the ground as she continues to stack just one more piece on top. I learned never to leave the room to get another cup of coffee.  Once, when I returned, I found her climbing past the couch with hands and feet reaching for the living room drapes. She has a consistent habit that I admire.  In the midst of her activities, as she moves robustly from one play...