Sunday, May 11, 2014

Church. As a formal super obese woman and now an almost just overweight but still obese woman - I'm changing - Church has always been my safe haven. However, the pews in the church are not always meant for people my size.

Pews 
Church is my away time. It is my time to reconnect and to acknowledge my week with God, and how I can sufficiently become a greater follower—with the hope of receiving everlasting life with my Savior.
We always sit on the end of the pew—it’s an old habit. When you don’t have kids, you don’t mind moving to the middle, being surrounded by people—with children, especially when babies enter the picture it all changes—you must sit at the end for a fast getaway. Breastfeeding, exploding diarrhea, screams of the unknown, uncontrollable laughter that sadly irritates your fellow Christian brothers and sister—all of these demand the end of the pew seating. So here we are with children all of a proper age, no more nursing, diapers, or interruptions—end of the pew sitting out of habit. When it’s time I gently glide out of the end of the pew and make my way to receive the body of my Lord Jesus Christ; slowly I walk back to my pew with the scary acknowledgment that my 300+lb body must now walk from one end of the pew to the opposite end. The distance between the area to sit and the opposing side of the pew in front, is a distance that terrifies my legs, my knees, and my perceptually vision of whoever is noticing how my thighs are not thin enough to walk through the pew as a naturally sized body does—legs side by side as if really walking! I try to be refined, I try to pretend as if it isn't a massive ordeal, that the sound of my pants are supposed to sound as if they are crying for help—as the pressure of being squeezed between pews is causing severe pain and anxiety. If I were to go faster it would appear as if I am galloping—lift one foot up and place down, drag opposite foot around thunder thigh, lift up, place down in direct position above front foot, repeat until near the end of the pew—if exercise regimen of walking through the pew is too rigorous of an activity—if the mere thought of trying to perform the diligent task of the straight lines obstacle course places too much worry (could never turn and face the front and shuffle to your spot---never could I admit such a defeat) one could always forgot their spot and sit down towards the middle, look around in surprise and disbelief and smile shyly at the onlookers realizing that -oops- you sat in the wrong spot and gently slide down to your designated area on the pew—with an ass large enough to slide right into position.
Through prayer, praise, confessions of the heart—one has at least a half hour to find a remedy for how to maneuver through the rigidity of God’s house.
Sister Rose



Saturday, May 10, 2014

I am changing. With the help of many - I am changing. However, some aspects of these changes are taking much longer than I expected. I can be patient, and I do accept the process. I accept this slow changing process with patience and understanding, but that is not to say that I sometimes ( a lot of the times) also accept this very slow process with sarcasm, bitterness, and a foul smelling funk.

Smells
It’s like a mix of yeast, soggy peanuts, and humidity. It won’t leave me. It follows me around—the back of my neck, the spot between my breasts, the moisture between my legs, it’s always there. Can you smell it? Can he smell it? I shower, I clean, I scrub—but it still remains my trademark odor; as if I am an oven preparing oat nut bread on my thighs,  croissants around my neck, and biscuits under the rolls of my flesh. It is my scent. A scent nobody would want to emulate. Who would want to capture the stench that I have become—the essence of failure, depression, and a lackluster oomph of being?
Well it’s with me, it’s what I carry on me when I sit, stand, sleep, and sweat—it is my brand, my eau due toilette; my 300+lb toilet water that was created through years of immobility, binging, and compulsion. It wasn't always so noticeable--at 285 it was barely a scent, at 250 I could carry myself without my nose acknowledging my fat, and anything below 235 was the scent of a clean, fresh, and somewhat desirable aroma. I hate peanuts and I vow to never make homemade bread.

Yes, I had a very negative attitude towards myself when I wrote this, but it WAS true. While I was writing, I realized that I had never ever heard anyone else talk about the smells that some overweight - I mean really overweight people have, including me. I smelled it on myself, and I prayed that nobody else did. Since no one else talked about it, I thought it was just me - I thought I was the only person who smelled a warm, soggy, type odor on herself. Thankfully once I started getting help and TALKING about this smell - other people related with me. I wasn't alone. 
Thankfully I do not extrude this body perfume of mine anymore. I am slowly bottling it up, and I plan on taking this bottle of failure, depression, and layers of fat very, very far away
Sister Rose