yeah, I like it like that.

Isaiah 58

True Fasting

 ¹ “Shout it aloud, do not hold back.
   Raise your voice like a trumpet.
Declare to my people their rebellion
   and to the descendants of Jacob their sins.
² For day after day they seek me out;
   they seem eager to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that does what is right
   and has not forsaken the commands of its God.
They ask me for just decisions
   and seem eager for God to come near them.
³ ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say,
   ‘and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves,
   and you have not noticed?’    “Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please
   and exploit all your workers.
⁴ Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,
   and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today
   and expect your voice to be heard on high.
⁵ Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
   only a day for people to humble themselves?
Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed
   and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
   a day acceptable to the LORD?
 ⁶ “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
   and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
   and break every yoke?
⁷ Is it not to share your food with the hungry
   and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
   and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
⁸ Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
   and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness^[a] will go before you,
   and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.
⁹ Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
   you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
   “If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
   with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
¹⁰ and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
   and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
   and your night will become like the noonday.
¹¹ The LORD will guide you always;
   he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
   and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
   like a spring whose waters never fail.
¹² Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
   and will raise up the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,
   Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.

an ode to diets

Recently I was telling some one near and dear to me that I had decided to not eat meat for a time, simply because I have a very low tolerance for gore right now in my life. I asked them if they had any information, and the first thing they told me about was a "diet" plan they heard. WHAT?!  I'm sorry, did you not hear me, I'm not eating meat because I've seen and heard of too many beaten bodies lately, to put a piece of meat in my mouth! But I digress... Why does it always come down to a diet? Why does it seem to be the solution for everything? I am done with diets. Done, done, done, done done. I am done with constantly thinking of the calorie count that goes in my mouth, and the fat percentage in my milk. I'm done discussing my weight, and how its not where its "supposed" to be. I am tired of sitting down with people, and listening to the new approach their taking this month, listening to them tally what they've eaten, or not eaten, how much they lost, or how much they didn't. Listen friends, don't you think you're more important than that? So many facets of your beautiful life, and you let your ups and downs be run by the ups and downs of your scale? I'm tired of feeling that if I don't lose weight, I've failed. Sit back and think about it for a minute.... I've failed? It doesn't even make sense. I'm a mother of two beautiful children, I'm in love with an incredible man, I have a degree and I'm working on another, I have a warm house and a car that runs (most of the time). This doesn't sound like failure. I am healthy, and yet, this is the message that we are bombarded with constantly, because of what? a number on a scale. I'm tired of it. I'm tired of my self-worth amounting to my weight. I'm tired of your self-worth amounting to it as well.
And I'm tired of accepting other ideals as my own. My husband loves me, and he's attracted to me. As far as I'm concerned, until he tells me differently I'm right where I'm supposed to be. Don't get me wrong. I will eat healthy, I'll eat my veggies and plenty of them. I'll walk outside and exercise because it makes me feel good.
Perhaps if I'm released from this demon of  "the diet", I will not longer be possessed by the need to equate what I eat with my happiness or lack there of in life.
And think about it, we're worried we're eating too much? How blessed are we to live in such a "fattened-calf" of a land, that we can obsess over what goes in our mouths. To think that my eating too much, may take away from some one else, or employ some one at a very low paid fast food job so that I can have quick-fix happiness in a burger and fries. Its like soft porn, the giving up of pride for a moment of enticement.This is much more heart wrenching, then my adding another layer to my hips. How egocentric could we get?
I feel that I'm beginning to digress again, as I normally do when I start talking about the plight of the world.
Anyways, I'm done with it. I'm done with dieting. I'm going to eat like a normal person, and I'm going to let my gut determine what goes in it. That is all.