Many of you know, if you’ve been reading my blog for awhile, that I struggle with an eating disorder. You can read more about that here. Lately, with the ongoing threat of Covid and the increased patient load at my workplace (you can read about what I do here), I’ve been succumbing to the urge to rapidly consume the contents of my cupboards, healthy or otherwise. I recently took the important step of booking an appointment to see a professional about my problem. I’ve always been a self-helper. Whenever my behaviours resulted in too many unpleasant outcomes, I would read widely on my issues and adopt new coping strategies. Often, this would produce small, lasting changes, but I’m finally ready to admit that I’ve done what I can and I need another’s perspective and guidance. Continue reading “Mountains are for Climbing”
Category: Addictions
Move it and Lose it: A Former Fatty on Going Lean
The word fat has been in my vocabulary since I was a child. I’m sure there was a time when I was small in size, but I don’t remember it. I was never a wisp of a girl, it’s not how I’m built. When I see pictures of myself in preadolescence, the first word that comes to mind is stocky. I’m reminded of an impish boy pointing at me on the playground, his eyes flashing, as he sang, off key, the popular, Ball Park Frank’s jingle, “They plump when you cook ’em”. He wasn’t inaccurate. Plump. That’s me, for most of my life anyway. Continue reading “Move it and Lose it: A Former Fatty on Going Lean”
See if I Care
I lost something recently that I cherished. No, there’s been no death in my family. I like to use big words and have a tendency to exaggerate. I lost pictures I’d taken on my holidays, pictures I’d admired and played with and hoped to share on Instagram, probably 500 of them. I went on a hike to a lake this summer and impulsively took my phone, the keeper of my precious pictures, on a swim and, nope, I didn’t have them backed up. My phone is dead, blank, unyielding, even though I smothered it in quinoa, rice, and silica crystals, took it in to have it checked out by people who know more about phones than I, stroked it and prayed over it. I’m still praying, but to date, sadly, there’s been no resurrection.
Continue reading “See if I Care”
There’s a World out There
There’s a kid picking through a garbage can
While I sit down to breakfast
There’s tired man in an unemployment line
While I head off to work
There’s an invalid struggling to use his limbs
While I climb on my bicycle
And there’s a world out there trying
While I’m watching my TV
There’s a girl, she’s been living in a cardboard box
While I’m warm and sheltered
There’s a child lying broken on a kitchen floor
While I have been embraced
There’s a boy dodging bullets in a civil war
While I take peace for granted
There’s a world out there crying
While I’m watching my TV
I live in a world where I can choose to stay
Will I venture out, will I look and really see
That life is happening all around me?
I’ve been living in a fairytale
Some are living in a tragedy
What can I do?
Will I do anything?
There’s a lonely one pining in an empty room
While I’m loved and wanted
There’s sickly soul looking for a lasting cure
While I’m whole and strong
There’s a muddled mind searching for the simple truth
While I’m clear and rested
There’s a world out there dying
While I’m watching my TV
I live in a world that I must choose to leave
I must venture out, I must look and really see
That life is happening all around me
Lord, I wanna be a living spring
Welling up to eternity
Where everyone can come and drink
There’s a world out there
Posts come out every Monday morning, a poem every third Monday. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to receive notifications of my posts via email. Follow me on Instagram username: pollyeloquent. Thanks for reading. 🙂
Chocoholics Unanimous
I love chocolate. I eat it every day and often at every meal. It’s a staple in my diet. It makes me happy.
I’m an addict, I know. When I was a teenager, I ate seven chocolate bars in one sitting. In the middle of the night, I hurled chocolate chunks over the side of the top bunk. My sister, the unfortunate occupant of the bottom bunk, vacated the room after being hit by the splatter. When my children and I go out for ice cream sundaes and they leave blobs of hot fudge at the bottom of their bowls, I wonder if they’re mine, while I clean up after them.
Continue reading “Chocoholics Unanimous”