Cold Tangerines

   Last night my husband and I started a workout program called P90X. Some of our good friends started it last week so we have them to blame for this. They kept taunting us saying, "when we are hot expect to see us without our shirts on!" Come to think of it they are NOT good friends at all! (Only kidding.) It was good motivation for us to drop this extra weight we gained after our wedding, three years ago. I have had body image issues for a good majority of my life so I decided I have to actually do something about it now. I realized these issues are just me feeling sorry for myself and nothing will happen until I take action.
   A couple of years ago another good friend of ours gave me a book called Cold Tangerines by Shauna Niequist. It is a book made up of short stories from her life. Even though nothing too exciting happens in the book she writes it in a way that makes you feel like she is writing about my life and that IT IS EXTRAORDINARY. This idea that when you choose to see God in everyday occurrences your life then becomes an adventure, something extraordinary.
  After I read the book through the first time I decided it would be a good one to read once a year because I could get something different from it each time. I picked it up to start reading it for the second time last night. Here is a snippet from the first chapter...

  "I have always, essentially, been waiting. Waiting to become something else, waiting to be that person I always thought I was on the verge of becoming, waiting for that life I thought I would have. In my head I was always only one step away. For twenty years, literally, I have waited to become the thin version of myself, because that's when life will really begin.
  And through that waiting, here I am. My life is passing, day by day, and I am waiting for it to start. I am waiting for that time, that person, that event when my life will finally begin."

It seems like such an obvious concept but how much more powerful a message can be when you need to hear it the most!