this should be obvious but i wonder sometimes if we moms realize how much influence we have directly over our children no matter what we say because of our own body image and our own food issues.. recently i have been losing weight after discontinuing several medications known to add weight to you.
my daughter picked up on the fact i have also eliminated a lot of the sugar (most of it) from my diet and has begun wondering if she needed to go on a diet.
she is very athletic and has not a bit of body fat, so i sat her down straight away and explained to her that the weight i gained was unhealthy for me and that the medication was the main reason, that it has nothing to do with her or her body.. i am so worried about navigating the coming teen years with body issues for her because i had such bad problems with this in my own teens and adult life too.
Sorry I couldn't reply before, had that 'can't log in and stay logged in" for the past 12 hours! grr!!!
I didn't mean that parents' should be the ones to 'help' the kids if there are issues...that's usually the worst thing. I just meant professionals.
I wonder if anyone grows up without being screwed up over food in some way 
hugs
essie
this should be obvious but i wonder sometimes if we moms realize how much influence we have directly over our children no matter what we say because of our own body image and our own food issues.. recently i have been losing weight after discontinuing several medications known to add weight to you.
my daughter picked up on the fact i have also eliminated a lot of the sugar (most of it) from my diet and has begun wondering if she needed to go on a diet.
she is very athletic and has not a bit of body fat, so i sat her down straight away and explained to her that the weight i gained was unhealthy for me and that the medication was the main reason, that it has nothing to do with her or her body.. i am so worried about navigating the coming teen years with body issues for her because i had such bad problems with this in my own teens and adult life too.
This should be obvious but I wonder sometimes if we moms realize how much influence we have directly over our children no matter what we say because of our own body image and our own food issues.
Recently I have been losing weight after discontinuing several medications known to add weight to you. My daughter picked up on the fact I have also eliminated a lot of the sugar (most of it) from my diet and has begun wondering if she needed to go on a diet. She is very athletic and has not a bit of body fat, so I sat her down straight away and explained to her that the weight I gained was unhealthy for me and that the medication was the main reason, that it has nothing to do with her or her body.
I am so worried about navigating the coming teen years with body issues for her because I had such bad problems with this in my own teens and adult life too. So I thought I'd pass this article from CNN on here to parents (dads too) and just remind you, talk to your kids about healthy diet and weight issues, and be hypervigilent about their eating habits changing. If you see any signs of an eating disorder, get them help right away.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/08/09/diet.moms.ap/index.html
hugs
essie
i'm currently reading richard dawkin's book the ancestor's tale and it suddenly struck me that evolutionists believe all men are equal seeing that we all came from a common ancestor.
that being the case, would it not serve man to believe in evolution?.
turn on the t.v.
Hello Ian dear 
You know, just a few days ago my ten year old brought up this subject after watching the news and seeing the fighting in Lebanon. She has already very wisely figured out that religion is the source of major problems in the world, and she has asked me many times why people can't just tolerate each other and get along (oh the innocence of childhood!)
I told her that the problem with religion comes down to the fact that everyone who is a believer, believes that they only have the right one. Therefore, their beliefs are surely superior to everyone elses and are the only way that you should live your life. Religious bigotry leads to violence, and it has been going on for thousands of years all in the name of supposedly pleasing a 'loving' god figure, which ever name you choose to call him/her/it.
My child is also convinced that greed is the true cause of suffering in the world (what a wise thing for one so young to realize!)
Then she said "Well nobody can prove that god created people and nobody can prove evolution either. I mean, who was there to see it? Who heard the Big Bang? In the end somebody just has to shake their head and say "I don't know, it's crazy! it just happened that way cause I believe it did!"
So we have come to the point in our household when the subject of mankinds mistreatment of each other and how we all got here, we say "I don't know, it's crazy."
I told her that at the point I'm at in my life, I have decided that it really doesn't matter one bit HOW I got here. Or how my forefathers/mothers got here, or if I did evolve from being an ape or one celled whatever.
I'm here now. What I do for others, to try to leave my mark in whatever small way by helping others if I can, that is all that matters. What you do with the life you've got is all that matters.
WE ARE ALL THE SAME!
You got that right, my friend.
essie
obviously not the real stars everyone believes they're there!.
but ive been interested in everything i couldnt be as a jw, ghosts ghouls, been to a wicker thing with sirona , had a physic reading etc.
and ive just got a kit on how the stars influence your life and how you can do a birth chjart or something, but i dont understand it, and just wondered if anyof you guys are into it and can explain it to me?.
I thought I did for awhile...but as others have very succinctly put it, I realized that believing my fate is out of my own hands would for me be like giving my power back to the borg.
I love the idea of thinking that some great Force in the universe guides life, depending upon which stars were interacting or however it's supposed to work when you were born.
In the end, though, I just can't make myself believe it. I guess I am faithless after all. Some people believe in God, some truly believe in the stars. I salute them both, even maybe envy them a little. But I just don't feel any true connection to that. The closest thing I've ever had to a true 'religious experience' has come in my connection emotionally with one other human being.
In the end I'm just content knowing that I don't know what makes things happen the way that they do in life and frankly neither does anyone else, really...
essie
i just can't believe all the trouble witness kida are having lately in my area( (vancouver b.c).
3 years ago a witness kid (18 years old) jumped off a bridge to his death.. the latest news from the jw grapevine is that a jw kid that i knew (he is now 20) is in the insane assylum.
it seems he was found swimming towards bethel from vancouver (he left a note) this was at least a 1000 miles away and he never would have made it.
KW, I'm glad you're still here! Kimoko, welcome to the forum.
I think that JW issues certainly exacerbate any tendencies toward mental illness in a person esp. children raised in. Also I believe that the JW attitude toward getting help for people from 'worldly counselors' delays vital treatment.
You can't tell me that the kid who jumped in the river and tried to swim to bethel never showed any other signs of mental illness. what the hell was wrong with his family? Oh yeah. They're JWs!
Several people in my family are seriously mentally ill and refuse treatment. Someone is going to die someday because of it. They cannot say that I didn't try to warn them.
essie
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a little prayer for my hubby and i would be greatly appreciated.... grandma passed away last night battling cancer...we stayed by her side to the end... she was a lovely lady...we will miss her tremendously... i could go on forever on, how young she was at heart....... many thanks,.
morty
Morty, I am so sorry. My grandmother was my heart and I still haven't dealt with her passing almost two years ago.
Sending you and your husband all the love in my heart. I can't imagine how hard it must have been to be there but I am glad that you were for both of you; my grandmother was hundreds of miles away when she died, I couldn't get to her and it has made the whole thing so much harder to wrap my mind around.
I am so very sorry.
hugs
essie
continued from part one: .
the envelope was thick and so i knew that it had to contain pictures.
when i opened it, faded snapshots .
((((((Sad Emo))))) You seem to need a hug, so there's one for you. I'm glad that this helped you in some small way.
To those hanging on to closets and boxes full of stuff. I can't tell you how happy I feel knowing that the junk is gone! No more 'landmines' waiting for me when I go to do the laundry! My husband said that he felt wonderful after it was gone too.
Now, just to hit the boxes in the bedroom closet and decide what goes there (probably some things from my sister lurking in there) and then, my space will really feel like mine again!
Sunnygal...I know what you mean about the old clothes. If you can't wear them now or would need to drop several sizes to wear them (like some of the stuff I ditched too) then it's just my experience that holding on to them makes you feel worse. Think of it this way; if they're old and worn out, then you won't want to wear them when you get to your goal anyway. If they're not, then think of the people who could use them in the mean time if you donated them to a women's shelter or something. Don't tie yourself into an idea that you have to be a certain size again (this spoken by someone with lifelong food/body image issues) just make it your goal to eat healthy and feel as good as you can.
It's not wasteful to let go of something that is holding you down. Find a good use for it, or just let it go. I can tell you that it is a fabulous feeling!
hugs
essie
some years ago my brother was disfellowshipped.
not for apostasy, but for more mundane reasons.
he has not had the internet, he has not studied the bible much since being disfellowshipped, he has been feeling guilty and considering returning for the last six months.. i had no way of contacting him, having lost touch in the midst of his many moves.
What wonderful news AS! I am so happy for you!
I have one sibling who truly has a clue about the borg. She actually was on the internet researching it years before I did. She never officially left, and she vascillates sometimes still feels like she wants to believe it's true but she can't un-know what she knows...you know?
I hope that this will be the beginning of a wonderful, real relationship for the two of you!
hugs
essie
we had a whole family that moved into our congo when i was about 10. they had kids from 6 to 16-years-old.
there was always talk of their beds spinning and shoes floating, et cetera.
they lived in a literal shack so i didn't want to go there to spend the night, but i always wanted to go and "check it out" to see some fireworks.
(((((outofthebord and restrangled))))) I'm sorry that you had to go through that.
OOTB you said "I guess that most of you know that my wife just died from cancer. I have to let you know this so that I don't have to defend myself for letting a PREACHER IN MY HOUSE."
Why should you have to defend yourself for that? You're not in the borg anymore, who you let in your house is your own business honey!
Sounds like the preacher is recruiting for his church. and not very good at it! How anyone could tell anyone else to keep smiling with a terminally ill spouse...I would want to smack them upside the head for their insensitivity. I'd ask him how many people he loved he'd watch suffer like that? I bet not any or he wouldn't make such an assinine comment.
About the demons thing...my mother is convinced that my father is demonized and all her children are demonized because of being his offspring. She thinks that every time a lightbulb burns out that the demons persecuting her.
I think she hears voices and needs medication and doesn't believe it.
I think a lot of mentally ill JW's think that their mental health issues are 'persecution' from demons.
God, I I wish I had all the stuff back that my mother made me throw out. Some of it would be worth big bucks now (star wars collectables from the seventies.) Though it was okay she made my sister throw out her Styx albums...I didn't cry too hard over that LOL
essie
comments you will not hear at the 08-13-06 wt study (july 1, 2006 issue date, pages 26-30 )(youths choice).
review comments will be in red.
wt material from today's wt will be in black.
Ugh.
Would you refuse to apply for a driver's license simply because you were afraid that some day you might have an accident***************************************Of course not!
actually my younger sibling HAS never learned to drive because of this. They are so afraid because of the fear instilled in them by the JW upbringing that they are now agoraphobic and well past "adolescence" I had no idea that it's considered to go till 24 in this country! I thought it ended before somebody turned 18.
I was baptized at 12. My mother was baptized at 8 and didn't even know what fornication was and went up to an elder and asked him after she was baptized because she didn't want to accidently do it. He told her to ask her mother.
That sounds like baptizing a baby to me. They have no right to throw stones at anyone.
Thanks, Blondie!
essie