THE FIRST STEP IS A CINCH

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today's FUNNY===========================

THE FIRST STEP IS A CINCH 
By Saralee Perel

"Where have you been?" a neighbor named Stacy said. 

"Where have you been?" my neighbor, Robert, asked. 

I was riding my three-wheeler bike down our road. The bike is made specifically for people like me who are disabled. "Well," I said to the dozen or so neighborhood folks who asked me the same question. "I took time off to be depressed."

I was on my trike that day because of a breakthrough. I can still visualize myself on a recent afternoon when I debated about opening our front door and re-entering the outside world. The breakthrough occurred because of this thought: "If I keep waiting until I want to do something, I'll be waiting forever."

Oddly, this new way of thinking began because of a 21-year-old movie I watched called, "City Slickers." Mitch, played by Billy Crystal, is dreadfully depressed as he takes us through his comical mid-life funk. 

During his journey of recovery, he was taught "the secret of life." But here's the thing: Finding that secret could never have happened until Mitch stopped waiting for happiness to come to him and instead took the first step himself. 

First steps, I have learned, are nowhere near as huge as they sound. They're actually quite simple. They have to be.

My husband, Bob, heard me crying when the movie ended. "I thought it was a comedy," he said.

"It was hysterical."

"Then why are you crying?"

"Because it made me realize I've wasted six months of my life by settling into depression and waiting, waiting, waiting to come out of it."

That was the instant I took that first step. I grabbed my cane and said, "I'm going to ride my trike." 

He tried to stop me. "You can hardly move today. And you haven't been on your trike for ages!"

"Bob, if I don't do this now, I am never going to do it." I knew that. I knew that from the depths of me. I had to do something to help myself. 

And it had to be now. 

Now, I'd have never done this had I thought, "I'm going to grab my cane, get my sturdy shoes, find the bike lock, check the weather," and on and on, ending with something overwhelmingly sabotaging like, "and ride every day for the rest of my entire life." 

I biked down our road, loving every minute. It's a new year, a new me, a new life and all because of one simple decision.

And so, the secret of life that Mitch learned? 

To paraphrase from the movie: "Just one thing," Curly, the wise cowboy said. "You stick to that and the rest is foolish detail." 

"What is that one thing?" 

"That's what you have to find out for yourself." 

For Mitch, it was not about taking an adventurous trip out West; it was merely agreeing to read the brochure.

For Mitch's wife, it was just saying these words to him: "I want you to have that adventure and find … your smile." 

It was when Mitch realized by simply giving his wife one single kiss: "Today is my very best day!"

And for me, it was grabbing my old wooden walking stick. 

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Award-winning columnist/novelist, Saralee Perel, can be reached at sperel@saraleeperel.com or via her website: www.saraleeperel.com. Please click "Like" on her Facebook Fan Page: www.facebook.com/4footedcoach. Her novel "Raw Nerves" is now available as a paperback and an e-book. To take a look at it on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0060LNUKK/mikeysfunnies-20

Copyright 2012 Saralee Perel. Permission is granted to send this to others, with attribution, but not for commercial purposes.

Should parents lose custody of super obese kids?

I say FUCK all these people to hell who want to take fat kids away from their parents!!

I was a fat kid since the day I was born and was ALWAYS on restricted food diets, even as an infant. I spent my childhood and adolescent years on a strict 1000 calories a day, all meals served by and eaten in front of my mother. All my relatives, friends' parents, and teachers knew so I was supervised when in front of them. Still I grew up to be a fat adult with hormone and other problems, and NOW all the science is saying I'm having those problems BECAUSE my food was restricted my entire life.

Thanks, Doc. Thanks fat-phobic mom!

And again, fuck you, all you people who want all fat people, especially fat kids, to just die already and not come into your line of vision. Fuck you all!

(click this headline to go to the article)

Should parents lose custody of super obese kids?