I don't normally post on the weekend but I had an experience over the weekend that I just had to share.

My Scottish niece and her boyfriend were in town for the weekend so we brought them to a neighborhood arts festival and had a blast walking around and looking at everything. I was so excited to see that my favorite local artist had a booth. I had purchased a piece from her a few years ago at a folk art festival and fell in love with her because she kept all her money in her giant bra and was the happiest most inspirational woman I had ever met. Her work is a wonderful combination of found objects and inspirational messages.

This one was destined to be mine

Mary is a very large black woman with equally large hair and dark sunglasses. She also wears headphones which I'm not sure are connected to anything. I spotted her right away, went over to say thank you and brought my niece with me so she could take our picture.

As we were walking away she said, gesturing to her ample curves,
"honey, I know you is tryin' and remember, you don't have to lose it all"

I was floored. My niece was in shock. How did she know??? Granted, you could assume that most larger people are trying to lose weight but I kind of have this (maybe) crazy feeling that she's some sort of guardian angel and that message was made for me.

I told the story to my my mom and she suggested that maybe I'm more open to those messages these days. Yoga helps and so does spending a lot of time inside my own head trying to work out the underlying cause of my struggles.

Even today I still feel emotional about it. It was a VERY important encounter I will never ever forget. That gorgeous piece of art is hanging where I can see it every day, next to the original one which I blogged about on my 4th post. Almost 3 years ago.

Mary, I know you will probably never read this but thank you. I be tryin' every day.

p.s. I finally lost another pound.