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I should have walked tonight. Instead, I spent the evening recovering from the busyness of the day and the misery of YET ANOTHER SINUS INFECTION. I am achy and exhausted and devoid of patience, not to mention depressed as snot. This has been my life the last six months. And this is where it has gotten me.
Over the last week I have written snippets here and paragraphs there, all part of trying to sort out this deluge of emotion surrounding the thickening around my middle. But I’ve not managed to post a single one of them. My hope has been that this blog would be the place for me to sort some of it out and perhaps find freedom. Problem is, I’m finding I’m afraid to write about it. Why? Because it’s not pretty. And I want my life to look pretty.
It’s not pretty to admit that I think about food and my weight and my body nearly 80% of my waking hours. It’s not pretty to admit that I still struggle with compulsive eating, even after all this time and knowledge. It’s not pretty to eat on occasion to the point of feeling sick to my stomach, just because “I won’t get to have this again for a while.” It’s not pretty to look in the mirror and see 240 staring back at me. It’s not pretty to realize that I am withdrawing from life, hiding in big sweatshirts and BSG episodes, all over 10 or 15 pounds. It’s not pretty to recognize the self-hatred that has shrouded my frame like a big, black trench coat, attempting to hide all that I don’t want anyone else to see. But if I don’t let you see, if I don’t look myself, there can be no freedom.
I want to post a disclaimer. I want to warn everyone that what they will find here is not going to be pretty. That the thoughts I think as of late are filled with fear and anger and doubt and self-hatred. That the content of this blog is as self-centered and perspective-less as content could possibly come. That I will go on and on and on about gaining ten-plus pounds, not because of the ten pound themselves, but because of all they represent to me. Then I want to take it all back, and delete the entire blog, and pray that you will forget everything that you’ve read here and return to thinking, “That Lorie—she seems to have it pretty together, as far having it together seems to go.”
I have fought this battle in my head, hidden in darkness, for far too long. I must bring it out into the open, into the light of truth, for the lies within to be exposed. But this openness, this fully exposing how wide and long and high and deep these issues run within me, is not something that comes easily. It is one thing to do it once I’m through it and on the other side, back “together” again. It is another to do it from the trenches—muddy and messy and up to my waist in the mire. It is a struggle to remain “broken open,” to not retreat back into my head and allow the words to just spin and spin and spin until they drop to the floor, tired but not spent. Today, I can do it. Tomorrow? I just don’t know.
And so this is my disclaimer. I do not have it all together, but I want desperately for you to continue to think that I do. If we can work out a little agreement here where I tell you how awful I am but you still think I’m wonderful anyway, I think we will get along just fine. Perhaps.
>Deal. ‘Cause, well, I’ve always wondered if there is stuff I shouldn’t say even when God is saying be vulnerable. I’m not there yet. It’s a scary place and I’m not sure I want to go there but maybe seeing you be so vulnerable and still thinking you are wonderful because I know God is the one transforming you will help me figure out how to be vulnerable with that really ugly stuff that I wouldn’t even pay to tell someone. 😉
>My fondness and respect for you were never tied into a lovely figure or a “together” appearance. I like the way you laugh with your soul twinkling and the way you really think about what you’re hearing when someone speaks and your gentle determination– I could give a rat’s *ss about your weight except that it bums you out.Besides, if I thought about food 80% of the time, of course I would eat a lot– sheesh.KP
>This is why I keep friends like you guys around…(:))