Saturday, October 27, 2012

Finding Comfort Without Comfort Food.....

This week has been full of moments I'd just rather forget.  On Friday morning, we lost a dear girl to Cystic Fibrosis.  Our little town has more than its share of CF cases and Lezly was the second of her family.  I've lost people before, but its never hit this hard.  She's 22 years old and just died after two months of fighting in the ICU.  When I was 22, I was getting married and moving to Kansas to start my first job.  How is that fair?  Why was I so lucky to not end up with that one little gene?  With all of the medical knowledge we have, why couldn't anyone fix hers?  Maybe I'm finally old enough to understand the finality of it, but I'm not quite old enough to know how to handle it.

Sadly, Lezly was mature enough to handle it. She grew up way before she should have had to, but it was out of necessity.  She watched friends lose the battle to the same thing she was fighting. She struggled to breathe.  She struggled to stay healthy.  But she never used any of it as an excuse.  I still remember the first day I saw her on the basketball court -- I swear, the ball was bigger than she was -- when she was sinking three-pointers in 3rd and 4th grade basketball.  She had every excuse to sit on the sidelines and watch her friends play, but she refused.  She wanted to play and, even though it was difficult, she did.  And she played well.  She had every excuse to finish high school and stop.  But she didn't.  She worked her butt off to finish that degree -- and she did. She got an education because she wanted one.  I guess I should stop and think of her next time I think I can't do something.  

I used to eat when I was stressed.  I'd bake cookies, cook chicken fried steak, eat boxes and boxes of mac and cheese... whatever I could think of as "comfort food."  Since I grew up in the south, I had plenty of options for recipes that were smothered in gravy and/or cheese.  Now that I'm trying to be healthy, I had to find something else to do... so I engaged in retail therapy today.

Shopping used to be a source of stress for me, instead of an outlet, so this was new for me.  It's not much better for my bank account than comfort food, but it's great for my psyche.  For years, I've only shopped at Lane Bryant and CJ Banks because they always had my size (22-24).  Today, I walked into Sears, picked up a pair of size 14 jeans from the MISSES section (no plus sizes in sight!) and they fit!  I went to Lane Bryant to see if my *favorite* style of jeans would fit in a 14 and they're way too big.  I don't need the 14W anymore, just the 14!!!!!  After the week I've had, it couldn't have been better timing.  


1 comment:

  1. X, ( I miss lez & luk sooo much! Btw my Google account shows up Courtney because it wouldn't take courtesy as my real name, I figure you already got that figured out but I thought I'd throw it out there.

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