This Post Is Not About Gardening.....

But it’s about the seeds we sow…….

This afternoon I watch a rerun of Little House On The Prairie. This episode was about an overweight man whose daughter was ashamed of him. He heard her telling the mother she (the daughter) didn’t want any of the children in the town to know that the man was the girl’s father.

He in turn left and pretended to be gone to work for the railroad until he had an accident and needed surgery. The girl overheard a blind child read an essay the child had written about the overweight man. The essay was centered on the man’s kindness and gentleness and love.

The daughter realized how foolish she’d been and went to the man’s room (where he lay in a coma because of the accident and later surgery to save his life) and apologized to her father and asked him to live not for her but for the other children who loved him.

This television show set me on edge for you see I’m overweight and I deal with people making comments about my weight quite often. Comments such as “I don’t know why any man would want a fat woman.” or a comment about another person gaining so much weight that they’re “nearly as fat as you are.” or saying that they’d never say anything about one of my daughters being overweight and in the next breath ask “Have you seen _____ lately? She’s gained so much weight you wouldn’t know her.”

These comments hurt. They cut to the core because you see at one time in my life I was underweight. I starved myself to be thin so I’d be “attractive” until I became ill with a lung disease that was treated with high doses of steroids.

I gained a lot and I do mean a lot of weight during this time in my life. I’ve never lost the weight. I lost all but five pounds at which time the lung disease became active again and I had to be treated again in larger doses of steroids and for a longer period of time.

If any of you know anything about steroids you know they affect every part of the body. I have asthma cause by the steroids, I have arthritis caused by the steroids and I have fibromyalgia that there is no known cause.

I guess what I’m trying to get across to everyone is: Do not criticize another person unless you’ve walked in that person’s shoes and know what lies behind the way the person looks.
Most of us would never make a comment to a person about a large scar on their face, a birthmark that was visible or thinning hair or lip hair or anything else that a person may have that makes them less than perfect. Why do any of us think it’s alright to make comments to people who are overweight.

Before making a comment to another person about their body size maybe we should all go look in the mirror and see if our face or body is perfect.