The Parable of the Skinny Ankles

The other morning as I was sitting on the bathroom throne, I looked down at my prettily painted toes and smiled. My eyes moved up to my ankles...my normally slightly chubby ankles. To my utter delight, I realized that my ankles looked super skinny! Yee haw! Happy day! I jumped up and pulled the scale out from under my garbage can (this is where your scale must reside if you have a miniscule master bathroom...but I digress), stepped on, and waited breathlessly for those digital numbers to change from 00 to...HA! Sorry, I'm not gonna tell! All I'm going to disclose is that I had lost 2 lbs. Great news! I've been feeling pretty awesome about that for a few days. This morning I again peeked down at my ankles and they were STILL looking skinny! Yay! Just for kicks, I jumped on the scale again to make sure that I really had lost 2 lbs. I don't know about you, but my scale sometimes wants to make my life miserable by teasing me mercilessly. I'll be feeling all confident about myself and my ability to lose some weight until one day...BOOM! My weight is up by like 5 lbs. Um, there is no way I gained 5 lbs. in one day! I am not a binge eater. I may be a slight overeater, but I don't even gain 5 lbs. when I go on a 7 day cruise, so there is NO way that the scale knows what it is talking about. Anyway, I'm digressing again. Sorry, I tend to do that. So, yes, the scale still said that I had lost 2 lbs....hence the skinnier ankles. I was feeling pretty happy about that as I got ready to jump in the shower. As my eyes moved up from my skinny ankles to my knees to my thighs to my belly, I came to an awful, terrible, horrible, no good realization. When I lose weight, it literally comes off the bottom of my body and slowly, oh so agonizingly, ridiculously, slowly, works its way up. In fact, a few years ago, I lost 18 lbs. I was very proud of my hard work and dedication. I was especially proud of the consumption of literally more Brussel sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, broccoli, asparagus, and carrots than I had EVER eaten in my entire life! 18 lbs. is a lot of weight! But I didn't really notice a huge difference in the way my clothes fit. I always wondered why. Now I know. I ended up with super skinny ankles, somewhat skinny calves, kinda skinny thighs, and a tiny bit less chubby belly. Depressing. I mean, having skinny legs is awesome, but I kinda want the rest of my body to be skinny along with my legs, right? It's funny that I didn't realize this until today. As I dragged my skinny ankles and chubby belly into the shower, I wanted to cry. Why, oh why, I thought, can't it all just kind of melt off from the heavier places first, instead of from the places that I need to lose the weight the least?  I was feeling pretty dang sorry for myself and thinking that life was just not fair. But, almost immediately, another thought came to mind, and I'm sure glad it did. My mind kindly said to me(or wait...maybe it was my spirit?), Girlfriend, instead of complaining and feeling sorry for yourself, celebrate those cute, skinny ankles! Find joy in the small stuff. I'm not even remotely kidding when I say that I suddenly felt better! I smiled and looked down at my cute ankles and everything was ok.

Seriously, ladies. Let's start appreciating our skinny ankles, our pretty eyes, our awesome hair, our slender fingers, our favorite shoes, our perfectly waxed eyebrows, our new lip gloss...or whatever it might be. After that...STOP! Don't start harping on the bags under your eyes, the muffin top peeking out over your jeans, the chipped nail polish, the slightly too-big nose, or whatever else you dislike about yourself at this moment. I'm not saying that we should ignore things that we can change; I'm just saying let's simply enjoy the wonderful awesomeness that is us! And let's not stop there! This really set my thinking cap spinning. I honestly couldn't believe how quickly my attitude and feelings changed at that moment in the shower. I decided to appreciate my cute ankles and not focus on my belly. There is a lot about me to love. There is a lot about all of us to love! And love it we should!

How much happier and joyful would we feel if we decided to adopt this attitude about life in general? About everything? About being stuck in traffic? About picking what looked like the shortest line at Walmart but the woman in front of you whipped out 10000 coupons at the last second? About the pile of laundry on your floor that rivals Mt. Kilimanjaro? About paying bills? Ok, maybe I'm reaching here, but you get the idea. I tend to be a pessimistic person, I guess. I like to groan and grumble on occasion. Does this make me happy? No. If I choose to not grumble about being stuck in traffic or in line, does it change the circumstances of the situation? No. I'm still stuck. But, heck, I might as well feel happy. I mean, why not? And, you know what? There can be positives to a lot of these scenarios. When you fearfully approach that mountain of laundry, smile at it and say, "Hi there! Let's watch Gilmore Girls together!" Laundry is nothing more than an opportunity to actually sit down and watch Netflix for a little while. When you pay your bills, even though it hurts and you hate it and you sometimes aren't sure if you'll have any money left for a loaf of bread tomorrow, tell yourself, forcefully, so maybe you'll start to actually believe it someday, "I'm so grateful that I have a furnace so I don't turn into an ice cube, a water heater that allows me to occasionally take a hot shower... if there is any left after everyone else showers, an air conditioner so I can remain clothed all day and not give my child issues for the rest of his life when he walks in and sees me lounging on the couch naked,  a home...even if it's too small,  too dirty, too expensive, too old, etc,  a car, even if the "check airbag light" is on constantly (a true story),  a child with enough metal on their teeth to buy a car that doesn't have random service lights on at all times. Ok, I think you get it.

Let's join together this month and form a club called "The Skinny Ankle Society" or something like that. When we have our monthly meetings, we will vow to not complain about our bellies, our laundry piles, our vomiting children, the long line at the voting place (another true story), or the state of our nation. Let's instead focus on the good in our lives and in our world! I'm not saying that we should never complain. Not at all. I know that we women need to vent sometimes to our girlfriends, husbands, etc. That's ok to do on occasion. But let's try harder to appreciate the awesomeness that is ours to enjoy. I was feeling pretty blah this morning about the whole election thing. You all know what I'm talking about. I could easily choose to moan and groan all day today as I await the results. Instead, I'm trying to focus on the fact that we still get to live in this amazing nation! True, we have problems, to say the least. But how lucky are we to be here? How lucky are we to get to have the privilege of going to vote today and having a say in the democratic process? I forget way too often how much better our lives are here in comparison to many other nations in this world. Life is pretty dang good from where I'm sitting right now. And, wow, my ankles look great!