I remember Twiggy. In the l960s, at the age of 16, she became a prominent teenage model. She had large eyes, long eyelashes, and thin build. She seemed to be everywhere..in all the magazines, newspapers and television. I was barely out of my teens, married and expecting my first child at the time. Thin was in and I was watching the scales climb at a dramatic speed. No sooner was the baby born and I was on a strict diet and exercise program, trying my best to be a skinny super model look-a-like. Much to my disappointment and despair, I never quite succeeded. How could nature have played such a dirty trick on me and how could I live with this average body style. Through the years I would try and try again. Looking back to those days, I realize now what I had was the wrong attitude. If only I could have felt grateful to be a size ten. It would take several years to come to the realization that I needed a grateful heart. Vanity was not a good thing. Where was the gratitude for having been blessed by a loving God, having a good healthy body? Melody Beattie's words of wisdom seem to say it all.......Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of the past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.
