Wednesday, January 13, 2010

"Keep on Keeping On"

"Keep on Keeping On" is one of the regular phrases used by people in alcoholic anonymous. Now I usually do not get too excited by the rote repetition of phrases, or with people telling me what I should think. But Tuesday I saw that motto mentioned in Jeane Eddy Westin's TheThin Book 2, and it suddenly made so much sense. I was planning to weigh myself later in the day, knowing full well that my indulgences (again!) over Shabbas would probably do the whole week's loss in. But this phrase reminded me that one week's weight was not that important in and of itself. Much more of a concern is that this behavior is becoming repetitive….
So I decided instead to center on "Keep on Keeping On"… including a concrete plan to prevent the same behavior next week. (Number one being to NOT make pumpkin pie for desert…..).
And, by the way, this is true of SO many things. Years ago a wise young lady (my mom) told me that many times people can go through a hard time, a bout of depression, a period of bleakness. "The important thing is to keep on doing what needs to be done, to take one day at a time." Ie., to keep on going on.
So whatever your trials are, whatever you are struggling with… just keep on keeping on. Hopefully, eventually, the path will become a bit easier, or you will grow to walk the trail of your trial with head held high and confident.
(PS As it turned out, I even lost a smidgen of weight, although it was much less than what could have been.)

1 comment:

Batya said...

Great post. Just yesterday I sat on the bus with a young mother enduring some very difficult "trials," and she said the same. Also, look at the "full" not the "empty."