The Whistler's Dream

Everybody needs a dream...
Mine is to go to Oklahoma and play whistles for The Pioneer Woman. (Having been invited, not in a "creepy stalker" kind of way, for the record.) Heck, I'd play in a pup tent in the backyard for the joy of the cows and critters. What can I say? I'm a fan.
Everybody needs a dream...

Random Fluffy Foto!

Random Fluffy Foto!
Writing in bed, and Beka editing by ear. Really. The ear typed some letters. Really.

The Back Story - From Whence Have We Come?

The Whistler's Wonderings grew out of attempts over the years to finally get my weight under control. Encouraged by a friend to blog my journey through a medical fasting program, it began mostly as a testament to how little I believed that things could or would change. But it was this or consider surgery, and I didn't want to look at that.

Weight fell, weight gained, and things coasted along... We even looked into the surgery, to see if that would be a better solution, but insurance denied it, twice. It just wasn't time. Things went along thus, until God decided that the time had come for the wrecking ball.

First, my job of almost 20 years was swept away in 2006. Then I wandered a long time, lost in depression, regaining the little bit of weight I had lost, coming back to around 480 pounds. I floundered, grasping at anything to try and find some meaning and purpose in my wrecked life.

The lesson is, meaning and purpose don't come from jobs, from things, or from externals. Meaning, purpose, everything comes from God. And if He isn't in His proper place, nothing else is either.

In January 2009, another journey through medical fasting took me to Weigh To Wellness, and Dr. Kimberly Turke. Under her gentle care, I lost 50 pounds, began seeing some of the underlying issues, and once again considered bariatric surgery. This time, it WAS time. And God cleared the road before us.

March 30th, 2010 I underwent a Sleeve Gastrectomy with Duodinal Switch under the excellent care of Dr. Paul Kemeter and Grand Health Partners. And when I awoke in my room after surgery, the following words were the first I heard...

"My chains are gone, I've been set free."

And nothing has been the same since.

The posts after 2010 share the journey, the shifts that have happened along the way, the surprizes, shocks, laughs and tears that come when everything is changed, and the wonder of being ReBorn.

Come along on this journey - after all, the same God who parted the sea is the same God who has lead me from 480 pounds to a new life, and is the SAME GOD who works and loves and intervenes in the lives of all of His children every day. I'm not unique - just blessed beyond my ability to express it.

And so are you.