Noise

I was at Barnes & Noble again today.

Do you see a theme here? ;)

I can't stay away from all things that involve books, coffee and tea.

Anyway, I was browsing around the cookbooks as well as the health and nutrition section.

There were low carb diet and cookbooks, paleo books, celebrity cookbooks and diets and diets endorsed by physicians.

My head was just spinning.

Some of them tell you that everything you now eat is toxic and you need to go back to a life in the forest and munch only on berries and seeds.

Some of the books give you a different version of what "natural" means and that whole milk is okay but not butter or any other myriad versions of "eat this, not that".

Not only that but there were cookbooks that promised diets to make you look younger.

Standing there amidst the stacks I started to feel my heart flutter and anxiety creep in.

It was like I was being yelled at from every angle.

"YOU are doing it all wrong!  Here's what you should be doing!  Here is the magic fix you've been looking for.  Just follow my advice and you'll be thin and beautiful and worthy and your life will just be rosebuds and rainbows!"

Or not.

Is it just me or are you so darn sick of all the yelling and all the claims?

Don't you get sick of people constantly trying to sell you something?

I do.

Does it irritate you as much as it irritates me that a witless celebrity can be hailed as a genius without any credentials to back it up?

It's like somehow we're led to believe that the visibility of celebrity works somehow like osmosis and intelligence and knowledge just ooze in and out of them.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I have all the answers or that I'm the intellectual authority.

But see, that's the difference between us- I don't pretend to be.

I've lived long enough to know that the more I know, the more I know that I don't know.

But whatever happened to listening to your own inner wisdom?

Whatever happened to the hard science of calories and have they really defied them?

It makes me angry to see so many desperate people being sold stories when they're just wanting relief.

I choose to follow Weight Watchers just because that's what works for me personally but ultimately I know that it's about calories in versus calories out.

It's getting support and eating in moderation.

It's trying to eat the foods we know support our health.

I mean we know that an apple has more health benefits than a caramel apple.

We don't need anyone to tell us that.

Sometimes it's hard to believe that it's just that easy and that it's just that hard.

We want to really believe that this time is going to be different and he or she will give us the EASY button we've been looking for.

The truth is that some things in life are just hard and we just have to do the work.

The gift is in the process itself, even when it's hard.

I was playing Boggle with my son today and one of our shake ups didn't look so good.

That is to say it wasn't going to be easy.

I told my son that the hard ones were really good for us because it would push us to see things differently and that we would be better players for having gone through those more challenging sessions.

Life's like that.

At least that's what I believe.

I believe there's a reason behind our trials and tribulations and, while I don't pretend to know all the answers, I do believe that those trials do make us stronger.

They build our character and shape who we are.

So often we run from pain in life but what if that same pain is what God will use to shape us and make us stronger- to grow and learn and expand?

I'm thankful for the successes and the trials I've had.

To this day I still struggle to do the work that is mine to do but I'll always come back to it.

Amidst all the dissonance I will still choose to go within and listen to my body and do what's right for me.

I would encourage you to do the same.

You have wisdom within you.

We are all unique individuals and what works for one person may not work for another.

So you listen to your own body and your own doctor and you do what is yours to do.

As you do all the noise will fade away and you'll be left with something so much better, something real, and lasting, beautiful and strong.