We Get By With a Little Help From Our Friends

The Weight Watchers group that I attend has a good leader.  She's prolly not a great leader, but she is a good leader, and she is the right leader for me.  Early on, she said that she had lost seventy pounds and that it had taken her three years.  I admired her sticktoitiveness.  We have a really good and supportive receptionist, too. 

But what keeps me coming back to this particular meeting is the group itself.  There are a handful of us who started around the same time; some have much more to lose than others.  Then there are two who have been coming for months and months.  About eight of us sit near the front (so much for being a Lutheran!) and have formed a tight bond.  We really care about each others' issues.  We are genuinely happy for each others' losses.  We matter to each other, even though some of us don't know each others' names!  It is one thing when a family member or a friend congratulates me on the loss of a pound or two.  It is something else entirely when one of the group members issues congratulations.  It just means more from someone who is down in the trenches alongside.

We have membership books where our progress is recorded, and over time, mine got a bit battered.  I use it every day.  Several times every day, in fact.  So I took some pink William Morris fabric and made a little cover for it.  Last week one of the women in the cluster commented on the cover.  So I decided to make some for my friends.  I chose a variety of fabrics and got one out of a fat quarter, using the same fabric for the lining as the outside.  I spent a total of about two or three hours making eight of these.

For my friends.  My colleagues.  My peers.  Who care about my journey.  And the feeling is mutual.