Over the years, I have lost count of the number of emails and letters I have received from someone who is just sure that having an eating disorder is the very worst fate, or luck, that could happen to anyone.
Maybe this was why one of the first lessons that my own mentor taught me is that "everybody has something" they deal with in life. We all have something we struggle with, something that makes us more human, not less...and something which, in the overcoming of it, will reveal to us how strong, courageous, precious, and irreplaceable our lives really are.
For some of us - for many of us here - that "something" is an eating disorder. But it is not worse, or less honorable, a challenge to face than anybody else's something. In fact, facing down and overcoming an eating disorder is the stuff from which heroes are made!
Today I was driving, minding my own business, when an amazing sight leaped out of nowhere to command my attention. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a large slab of concrete esplanade that separated my lane from the opposite lane. But that was not what made me literally turn my car around.
Springing up, strong and tall and proud....and all alone....in the vastness of the concrete was one tall, bright, neon yellow, and very determined DAISY.
Just one concrete esplanade over, literally hundreds of flowers congregated together underneath the shade of a large tree. But the daisy whose little seed pod had landed on an isolated island didn't let that sight undermine her will to live or her determination to grow.
To the contrary. She bloomed with such vigor and force that I actually pulled over the side of the road... to join her.
To me, this lone daisy embodied the essence of courage, of humility, of self-respect, of honor, of HOPE. We bloom wherever we are planted, in the soil that surrounds us. We don't have to worry that we have done something wrong, that there is a reason we landed here and not somewhere else, or that we would have had more luck or success or chances if only we had had someone else's soil, or family, or genes, or life.
We simply concentrate and do what we do best - be ourselves. So now, I would like you to meet the "Beating Ana" inspiring daisy of the week, and invite us all to JOIN HER!
This just brightened my day! I love daisies, such a happy flower. Thanks for sharing!
Posted by: Ann | 02/11/2009 at 04:10 AM
You are so welcome! You should've seen me, running across the street with my camera and trying to balance on the edge of the concrete and snap pics! ;)
Posted by: Shannon Cutts | 02/11/2009 at 06:22 AM
What a beautiful story! (and flower!) What a little inspiration she is!
Posted by: bambi413 | 02/11/2009 at 06:52 AM
I agree! :)
xo
Shannon
Posted by: Shannon Cutts | 02/11/2009 at 06:55 AM