The 'Lite-Brite' Lesson....

I'm doing a solid for one of my greatest friends here in New Jersey. I'm giving her a little break by babysitting her three children, so she could go and enjoy a night and a day away from the daily chaos that is her life. I'm really enjoying myself. I never used to be a "kid" person. In fact, I used to want nothing to do with them. However, since I had my son I have come to love children and their simplistic way of thinking. I love that they say whatever it is they are thinking (whether it may be rude or not) and aren't yet tainted by the idea of being "politically correct" about everything. Sometimes I think as a society we're too worried about being "P.C." about everything and we often lose sight of the real issues that lie underneath all the bullshit.


So last night, when the little-little ones (my son 1.5yrs, my friends son 3yrs) went to bed, I stayed up with my friend's little girl (5yrs old) and we put together her new Lite-Brite. Do you remember that game? I'm sure many of you do. I'm only 24 and I have many fond memories of sitting in my Grandma's basement on a rainy day, with all the colorful pegs spread out on the floor, creating pictures on the screen with my big brother and big sister.


I forgot how fun Lite-Brite can be! My little buddy kept saying, "Julie this is so awesome. I love the pretty colors! This isn't boring at all!" (made me smile and laugh with my heart). As we were placing colorful peg after colorful peg into the holes to create these colorful, illuminated pictures, I got to thinking.


The Lite-Brite game is kind of a perfect metaphor for my weight loss journey. Imagine that the colorful pegs each represent a specific goal I have already accomplished or that they are something I am working on as it pertains to my inner character and weight loss. Next, imagine that the picture board with all the holes for the peg is my entire being (meaning my mind, my body, my heart, etc) which is waiting for me to fit in the pegs to make it complete! Get it? Now, sometimes when you put a peg in its place and you move on to another, one of them falls out. Is this not EXACTLY like what happens when we attempt to lose weight? We get one thing right, then when we move on to the next thing, the last thing we thought we had right in the first place fails and we're back at square one.


But guess what eventually happens? Eventually, you fit all the pegs in (no matter how long it takes or how tired your fingers are) and you stand back to look at the big picture you have completed. Thinking in this way, I have realized that my weight loss "picture" is not yet complete. Sometimes I like to think it is, and I try to stand back and bask in its glorious completion only to see one of the pegs fall out. But this is okay. We must remind ourselves that all good and wonderful things come with time and great effort on our part.


Is it completely odd that I got all this just from playing a simple game of Lite-Brite with a 5yr old? I guess so. Well, the kids are almost done with their afternoon naps so I'm back on duty soon. I hope this entry made sense. I know its a bit of a stretch as far as metaphors go.