This could be interesting

My beloved soul sister C. sent me an email from NZ last night:

"Hello my dear friend,

_____ and I have a special question to ask of you. We would be honoured if you would read a psalm or poem for us during the wedding ceremony at the church. Please consider this and let me know by tomorrow, if you can. Love you lots!"

My reply was: "What poem would you like me to read?


:>

xo"

This morning I got back:  "Well, that's a good question!  It could be something you have written (goodness knows i love your writing- and you have a lot of it!)   or it could be a Psalms about Love is Patient, Love is kind... I have also asked my brother to read something, as well as ______'s godmother. I don't know how many Psalms are nice enough to read, so I thought a personal poem might be nice too.  Does that help?"

So I think that Ellen would appreciate this one... it's ideal for a comfort zone challenge!

#1 - I either need to write a suitable poem or find one by someone famous.
#2 - I will read it, in a church, in front of X amount of people with my only knowing a handful of them.

Wow.

But Soul Sister C. and I have been friends since a month before she turned 11 and I turned 14.

She and I have the same birthday and, awesomely enough, her fiancee S. and Hubs have the same birthday as each other.  (Though I am older than she is and Hubs is way older than S. is).

Little Man with C and her fiance, S.

When I married Hv1.0 - C. was living in Mexico so I did not ask her to be in my wedding because I didn't think she'd even be able to attend.  To my surprise and delight - she made it to my wedding!

Of course, considering how things worked out over all, it's probably just as well that she wasn't in my bridal party.

When she and S. finally got engaged, I wasn't sure if I would be asked to be a part of the day beyond attending because she has a LOT of friends and many of them are in the same stage of life as she is whereas I'm well into my parenting years, so to speak.

Because of what my weight was and how bad my anxiety was - I felt that if she had asked last year that I would not have been able to do it.

Then I started getting healthier, and I started to wish that she would've asked me, even if she'd figured that I'd have said no - I wished to have the right of first refusal, so to speak.

Little Man just leaned over my shoulder to ask if I blogged about the fact that it's a kid-free wedding (he likes weddings and is peeved that he doesn't get to attend).

So now, I need to come up with something awesome for her special day.

But, you'll see that I have not written any poetry in awhile.

Hmmn...

My 1st guest-blogger - say hello to my friend, Ellen!

So, I was thinking it might be fun (and inspiring) to have some of my wonderful blogging friends to do a guest-post for my blog and my first guest-blogger is the wonderful, warm and inspiring Ellen from Fat Girl Wearing Thin.

We decided that she would do a post for my blog and that I would do a post for her blog.  Please go to her blog, read my guest post and then stick around because she's an awesome blogger!

I am waiting for guest blogs from some of my other friends which I hope to post in the future and if any of my readers would be interested - email me and we can talk about it.

Now, without further ado, here's ELLEN! :>

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When FAB asked me to guest post on her blog, I eagerly accepted.  While reading her blog I can’t help but be reminded of my own transition as I went from my heaviest weight of 235 pounds to a normal weight for my 5’2” frame of 130 pounds.  I didn’t have a blog when I began losing, however, I am frequently asked what it was that I did to jump-start my weight loss.

When I first started losing the weight I’d carried for so long, I wondered how I was going to convince myself that I actually had to exercise as part of my weight-loss program.  I hated to exercise; the pounds I carried made me feel awkward and uncomfortable.

The single biggest change I made was also one of the simplest: I purchased a pedometer. Wearing it gave me instant accountability and access to see how I was doing at any given time.  It wasn’t long before I was exceeding 10,000 steps a day, and this is how I did it:  I moved.  When I was on the phone, I walked around the house.  When I brushed my teeth, while waiting for my dog to come back inside, while waiting for my bathtub to fill with water, I stepped in place.  As long as I was standing anyway, I figured I could just as easily move around so that’s what I did.  Before long I was averaging 16,000 steps a day and it showed.

By creating one goal, just one – I didn’t feel as though I had turned my entire life upside down.  It really didn’t feel that different from before, other than the fact that I was becoming more aware of how much (or how little) I was moving.  I started feeling stronger; I wanted to move more.  And I wanted to eat healthier.  Notice that I emphasize on the word want.  I did it because I wanted to, not because it was part of a series of strict rules I had to follow.  Things began falling into place; one good habit triggered another, which triggered another, and so-on.

I am now entering my seventh year of maintenance, but being here has it’s challenges, too.  There was plenty of information out there to show me how to get to maintenance, but there is very little information as to how one stays in maintenance.  For example, I never realized how difficult it would be to start reintroducing foods back into my diet that were once forbidden, or only eaten in smaller portions.  As my body readjusted to being able to eat more calories I had to become keenly aware of how much or how little was acceptable in order to maintain my weight.  Learning how to achieve that kind of balance takes some trial and error; every person’s body is different and there’s no manual to show you how it’s done, but it can be done.  Awareness is key.

Whether you are working on losing your first 10 pounds or that stubborn last 5, I want to share with you something which I learned along the way that’s become the mantra of my blog:  You don’t have to wait to lose that weight in order to live your best life now. Changing my body did not change who I was.  In the end, I’m still me, a work in progress; whether I’m 235 pounds or 130 pounds.   Being of a desired size is simply a perk of an already fulfilling life.

Ellen, aka Fat Girl Wearing Thin
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http://fatgirlwearingthin.com