For Today: November 14th

Nothing, I am sure, calls forth the faculties so much as the being obliged to struggle with the world.

Mary Wollstonecraft

Struggles with the world take different forms.  Where some people actively engage in combating society’s evils, others fight the battle within themselves.  Compulsive overeating is a struggle with oneself.  Obsession drives its victims to eat, even as they recoil, weeping in their helplessness.

Once the spiritual remedy is found, it can be seen that this kind of struggle, too, calls forth the faculties, sharpening the awareness of danger and fine-tuning the ability to distinguish truth from illusion.

For Today:  Struggles of the past are not to be regretted or ignored, but used to live in freedom.

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When I ask myself that 'should I/shouldn't I' question about food, I am struggling with myself, asking whether I should let my addiction out of its cage, 'just this once'.  If I allow it, the food obsession will destroy me.  It will drive me to eat eat eat, even as I recoil in horror, helpless to stop.

Why would I even consider DOING that?  I am aware of the outcome, it's always the same; yet I still sometimes struggle with the desire.

When I keep in mind the struggles of my past is when I ask God to help me stay the course with my food plan. 

For today, I will keep my beast asleep in her cage, with God's help, and I will not buy a ticket to THAT roller coaster ride.  For today, I choose sanity.