Yes, my soul is wrapped in cake and doughnuts. I have suffered from obesity since the birth of my third child. Gosh, you have no idea how difficult this is for me to write about. It's just a piece of cake. It's just a doughnut. Don't eat it. Ah, but that cake and doughnut is about that moment of pleasure in a life that has not had so many pleasures. Yes, I struggle with eating for emotional comfort. Like any addict, I hope to drown my sorrows in momentary pleasure. Obesity is a treatable disease and I'm working on it.
I don't have my obesity under control right now, but I haven't given up hope. I long to be well from this need to eat sugar. I live in a world that values the young and so called "beautiful." Thankfully, I have this fantastic understanding of beauty that keeps my chin up. My understanding was a gift. A photographer called Emerald England opened my eyes to the beauty of everything. I was at my highest weight of my life when I met her. I will tell you right now. I am the kind of person that everyone calls a beautiful heart.
I'd hired Emerald to take a headshot of me for my website. I apologized to her for asking her to use her incredible skills on someone like me. She looked at me in surprise and asked why. I told her my truth. I'm fat, dumpy,and gnome-like, and she takes pictures of beautiful people. She looked stunned and told me without hesitation, you are going to find out today that you are beautiful. I laughed and said OK. She took the shots and I went my way. When I received the pictures, I couldn't breathe.
Indeed, Emerald was right. I was beautiful, not just my heart, but the outside of me. Ever since that photography session, everyday, I stand in front of a mirror and speak the real truth to myself. You are beautiful, Molly. You have a health problem with food. It's complicated, but it doesn't lessen your beauty. I have an illness that has to be treated. This illness does not make less of a human being. That is someone else's problem.
So my soul is wrapped in cake and doughnuts. I'm working on it. Obesity is a tough disease to live with, but it is not an ugly-maker. You have value, whoever you are. Your flaws are part of your beauty. (My contemporary romance, Plumb Crazy, is really inspired by my journey with obesity. The main character, beautiful Elva, was another gift to me.) Here s a secret. Your so-called flaws will inspire your work if you let them.
I will back next week with my November series, Uplift.
Here is a doodle for you!
A quote for your pocket too!
The beauty of a woman is not in a facial mode but the true beauty in a woman is reflected in her soul. It is the caring that she lovingly gives the passion that she shows. The beauty of a woman grows with the passing years. Audrey Hepburn
I'm adding one of Emerald' England's pics, so you can see for yourself:
3 comments:
That's a beautiful photo, Molly! Our culture is messed up on its idea of beauty though. Just sayin' ... but I hear you on your struggle with obesity. But take heart. The Angelic Doctor of the Church, St. Thomas Aquinas, who wrote not just the Summa Theologica, but also beautiful hymns and poems that we still sing in Church, was called a "dumb ox" and described as: "a huge heavy bull of a man, fat and slow and quiet; very mild and magnanimous but not very sociable; shy, even apart from the humility of holiness; and abstracted, even apart from his occasional and carefully concealed experiences of trance or ecstasy."
Hi Vijaya, I think humanity has mostly missed the boat on beauty, not just this culture. On St. Thomas Aquinas, I hope I embrace big wonder just a little like him. I like this quote from 1 Corinthians: But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong." If this is the company I'm keeping, I am mightily blessed. M.
You're totally beautiful! Are you kidding me?! lol And that smile! I hope you get through this. Just worry about becoming HEALTHY. You're already beautiful.
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