My Imperfect Rambles

To start with ...yes, I am still on the wagon. I am not proud about it because I know I don't really have control over it. But I have not eaten anything containing flour or sugar for over 2 months so far... this time. I am grateful for whatever is allowing me to eat this way.
When I think about how I feel I think of the Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz. My joints feel like they have been oiled. Whether it is the weight loss or not having sugar in my body something about eating this way takes away most of my aches and pains.I love how it feels just to walk and move with some of the weight gone. 52 yrs old feels like 30 yrs old. Okay, so that part of my ramble is done for the moment.

Now I want to ramble a bit about lunch...okay so, for me, there was no flour or sugar involved. The food was yummy but, the conversation was better. I met with a couple of gal friends for lunch on Tuesday. Such a simple thing, one hour of sharing a meal and conversation with a couple of good friends. We had a great time. The conversation bounced from subject to subject. It was the kind of conversation that you can only have with people you trust. Joyful, comfortable, sincere, accented with laughing moments and some serious ones as well.
During the conversation one of my friends recalled meeting a mutual friend for the first time. She spoke of the person as being so kind, hardworking, sincere, and just plain old good. In fact she said she could not even picture herself as becoming friends with such a good person. Yet, they are that, good, true, friends. They got to know each other, they grew, life changed each of them and they ended up friends. They are important in each others lives.
For some reason, I am not sure why, that led me to thoughts of how I have come to believe that our imperfections are gifts we share with each other. By being imperfect we learn to forgive the imperfections of others and likewise, others imperfections allow us to forgive our own imperfections.
When my kids were small I became a member of the Roman Catholic Church. Through the conversion process I learned so much about the core of my faith, my belief in Our Merciful God. Early in the process I went to see the priest. He was an exceptional person and priest. He had become a priest in his forties. Due to deaths in his family he had raised several of his sibling's children. He had tattoos, and he drove an old Cadillac. There was nothing "other worldly" about him. He was human. I went to him to tell him of the worst of the reasons that I felt unworthy of God's love. At then end of our meeting he told me he understood and that he had lived through some of the same things. He also told me that I had been forgiven even before I had thought to ask. He asked God to bless me, he gave me the way to move forward. I left there knowing that I had been forgiven.
That changed me forever. If I am worthy in the eyes of God, then if other people judge me as not being worthy...well they just don't know that they don't have that authority...and that means they probably do not realize how loved they are. Knowing this makes it harder for me to hold a grudge for long, makes it pretty easy to forgive, and makes me realize that it is my failure when I cannot. Do I fail?...oh yes! That is a much longer and grimmer story than I am willing to put onto paper, let alone the internet.
So, what I want to say here is "thank you". Thank you to those friends who share their imperfections with me. ...and thank you for forgiving mine I value the gift. You keep me sane, help me be a better person, and remind me every day to be grateful that I have been forgiven. I hope you have some idea of how very important you are in my life.