When I, red pen in hand, review the Pray It Off Group’s Weekly Food Logs, I quite often rephrase the 1980's Loverboy song. Instead of, “Everybody's working for the weekend”, I sing "Everybody's eating the whole weekend." But the rest of the lyrics don't really need any changes, “Everybody's goin' off the deep end. Everybody needs a second chance, oh."
How many of us eat (and drink) on the weekends as if someone told us an asteroid was hitting the earth on Monday? We justify our consumption with our own personal litanies, “I work so hard. I try so hard. I deserve to relax. I deserve to treat myself. I am under so much pressure...... “
Why do we, weekend after weekend, believe that overeating will make everything better? Has it ever? We embrace the food on Friday night like a lover. Then for two days it's so attentive, so available... but come Monday, we awake with a food hangover to face yet another week.
If your first thought on Monday is, "Only four more days till the weekend," therein may lie the problem. I stopped, my weekend gorging, and fell in love with Monday’s, right after my best and true (B&T) high school pal, Karen Burnham Aldrich, died in December of 2007. She’d give anything to be in our shoes; to have the privilege of waking up on a Monday morning to face another week; to be able to hop out of bed, roll her sleeves up and tackle, with faith, whatever came her way.
The photo shows me (at 340 pounds) dancing with Karen (after fighting breast cancer for years) at our 35th high school reunion in October of 2007.
Two months later she’d be gone.
Two months later she would whisper in God’s ear, “Help my B&T friend Ellen; would you Dear Lord?"
Two months later Pray it Off was born.
Karen, "I love you so much and think of you always; especially on Mondays!"
PHOTOS: http://www.voidspace.org.uk/gallery/silly/garfield_monday.jpg
http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/asteroid-hits-earth-2.jpg
I love this post, and I am going to start loving Mondays! Plus I know a lot more than I would like to about how close those asteroids actually come. God is so much closer than any of us realize.
ReplyDeleteEleanor - thank you so much for commenting. You are so right about God!! Love Ellen
ReplyDeleteLove the Garfield pic. Mondays, not so much. But I'll try.
ReplyDeleteTrying is the first step, Nora my Dear Friend!!!
ReplyDeleteGreat post - I didn't know about your blog until today. I'm happy for you and I know my mom is/was/always will be proud of her B&T friend.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing :-)
Abby! Thanks, from the bottom of my heart, for reading and responding to this post. Your Mom is thrilled every time we connect - I just know she is. Love Ellen
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