Day #3 - Create a Mascot

This one was interesting for me.  When I read that I needed to create a mascot that represented my eating disorder recovery, I went a little nutty, and images of dancing donuts and pieces of pizza cheering me on wandered through my brain.  Somehow I don't THINK that's exactly what Hungry for Change had in mind, though... ;)

So I came up with something else:

Create a mascot...

I thought about a mascot, or really, more accurately, a symbol that means a lot to me in my eating disorder recovery.  For many, it is probably the NEDAW heart that people wear as a bracelet, or even get tattooed on them somewhere.  For some maybe it is a particularly soft and cuddly stuffed animal that got them through rough treatment center stays.

For me, I would have to say that my "mascot," my symbol of recovery, is a pearl.  I made a quick photo collage of some pictures taken of me recently, all where you can see a pearl nestled at my neck.  This particular pearl was given to me by my mom on the anniversary of Kendall's death.  It is beautiful, and I wear it every day, never even take it off to shower, to remember her.

To me, a pearl has become a metaphor for something very rare, fine, admirable, and that has a lot of value.  Those are all words that I would use to describe my recovery, too.  Recovery is almost anything before it could ever be described as EASY.  And pearls, the way they are made - in an oyster, when a grain of sand, or something uncomfortable gets inside it, it turns it into this really beautiful and really valuable object.  It turns something that is an adversity, something that they want to get rid of but can't, something that is probably painful and uncomfortable, and that brave little oyster, because it can't magically poof! it away, it instead works with it, and turns it into something beautiful, and eventually something that doesn't hurt anymore.

I love that.  I really love that.

And that is what I have done.  I have taken my really annoying and really painful grain of sand, a grain of sand that almost killed me, and I have turned it into this beautiful, amazing, pearl of recovery.  And maybe pearls are kind of common now, and maybe not as valued as they once were, or, say, in comparison to diamonds, but to me, my pearl that I wear around my neck is invaluable.  Because it symbolizes hope and something rare, and beautiful - RECOVERY.