Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Weight of the World

Mike and I recently celebrated 20 years of marriage, we have come a very long way in those 20 years. Very few possessions have stayed with us from wedding gift to modern day. Sheets and towels have long ago been replaced. Last year we got new pots. A couple of prints remain along with some beautiful candle sticks and some table linens. There is one other item; my Grandmother's wedding gift to us... A bathroom scale.

ancient and battered & quite likely inaccurate
Yes, a bathroom scale! At the time I secretly thought to myself '"What the hell...who gets their granddaughter a bathroom scale for a wedding present?" Then I wondered if my Gran was okay, maybe she was like the crazy aunt in National Lampoon's Christmas who wrapped up her cat and her jello mold as Christmas presents. I cherished glimpses of my Gran laughing it up and partying the night away during our reception, just in case it were true. I wanted some sparkle to remember her by.

My Gran kept all of her wits about her until the very end almost. She celebrated many anniversaries with us and always had some quiet wisdom for me when life was challenging. I never ever had the courage to ask Gran why she thought a bathroom scale was a good wedding gift, why not a nice picture frame of a serving dish? I never asked but over the years I've figured it out.

I've been stepping on that scale daily for twenty years and never once has it measured the weight of my world. I weigh the same whether my problems are minor or seemingly insurmountable.

Knowing that, I use the scale as a check-up not just of my physical well-being but of my emotional well-being too. I step on and after I read my physical weight I ask myself - "What is the weight of my world today? What is weighing me down?" Then I get to work on losing that extra weight so that when I go out into the world I am not throwing my weight of the world around.

It seems like a funny exercise but then a bathroom scale was a funny wedding present. Gratitude today to my not so crazy Gran who even after all the years she has been gone reminds me everyday that under the weight of the world you are still the same as you were yesterday, and if you are going to lose some extra pounds the easiest ones to shed are the invisible ones weighing you down.

Thanks Gran.

Gratitude, Hope & Smiles are meant to be shared,

Michelle