Hello friends!
It’s the hot season here in So Cal. While we enjoy mild summers, it’s September and October when things get sweltering here in Newport Beach.
Today’s high is supposed to be 105.
The heat is not my happy place.
Come to think of it, neither is the cold.
I’m sort of like a pain-in-the-ass version of Goldylocks — I want things ‘just right.’
But see, real life isn’t like that…even if you live near the beach, life is still gonna have it’s heat.
And that, is a perfect segue to #4 in my little series of Lessons I’ve Learned from Hashimoto’s.
Here we go…
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If you’re looking for a clue to today’s lesson, it’s right in the subtitle of my book:
Did you see it?
I couldn’t find mine for a while, either.
My sense of humor, that is.
Oh dear lord. Well, it’s just because there’s nothing really funny about feeling like crap, having your family treat you like you have leprosy, your doctors act like the Three Stooges, and you gain 100 lbs in less than a year and look like you ate yourself.
You’re waiting for the punch line, but it never comes.
It’s daunting and dark and life feels like you went from a technicolor movie to shades of grey.
And I don’t mean of the “50 Shades” variety.
Yeah. That’s gone too. It’s like your libido escaped down the fire hatch.
But because life is one big ‘opportunity’, it keeps giving you chance-after-chance to see how powerful you really are.
The Story My Husband Can’t Believes I Tell
One of my opportunities came at a music gig. I was gaining weight and getting dressed up wasn’t as much fun as it was when I was 135 lbs.
I opened up my new Queen Size pantyhose in the hotel room before our performance. Rock was watching the news and polishing his saxophone while I got dressed.
I got those suckers up, did the John Wayne walk and the hop-hop-hop twist to get them on even better.
Pulled on my long skirt, sighed, and sat down to put on my shoes. Out the door I went.
Oh and I was wearing a top. I forgot to mention that.
I wasn’t topless.
Because that would be a whole other story.
Anywhoo…
So, I went to the restaurant where I was playing. It was fine dining. Lights were low, conversations were in whispers.
I went up and talked to the different patrons. Welcoming them. Being charming.
It was all very demure.
Except for my sassy, Texas-twangy-friend and waitress, Lori. She didn’t have a filter or a volume button, apparently, because when I walked toward the piano, she came up to me, in the middle of God and everyone and said,
“What the hell is THAT on your ass?”
I turned around and died about a thousand deaths.
There it was. As bright as the sun. White packaging with purple fancy script letters in a huge font announcing, “QUEEN SIZE.”
Yup.
There I was with a Queen-size ass and a pea-size sense of humor.
I was not happy then. But I laugh at it now.
How?
Time.
Having kids.
Dealing with my perfection issues.
And losing my victim mentality of “life is happening TO me and is AGAINST me”
And learning that I am not my weight, the sag of my boobs, the dip in my bank account.
Or the name of my dis-ease,
Or the size of my wardrobe.
Or my wardrobe failures.
And so much more…
But the biggest thing is being on that journey of learning to love myself.
That’s one of the best ways to know that you are sacred AND how to not take certain things too seriously.
And as the famous ending to the serenity prayer goes, “And the wisdom to know the difference.”
Life’s a journey.
Make sure you smile along the way. It may not make it faster, but it will make it better.
And you deserve better.
You know it’s true.
Love yourself by laughing a little bit more in the places where you can.
Life is your opportunity —
so take it.
xo,
Stacey
Thanks for joining me on this series. I’m looking forward to sharing more and to being on the Hashimoto’s Institute Online Summit on Monday. There are 28 experts over 7 days sharing GREAT information on Hashimoto’s.