Sunday, February 25, 2007

National Eating Disorders Awareness Week

Today marks the start of National Eating Disorders Awareness Week, and our family marked the day by taking part in the Virtual Family Dinner sponsored by Maudsley Parents. We sat down to dinner at a friend's house and ate chicken curry, salad, and homemade pumpkin chocolate chip muffins.

The food was delicious. Even more delicious was the fact that we all ate, together, and ED was not at our table. Not tonight, anyway, and hardly at all for the last nine months.

Two years ago we were still ignorant about our daughter's anorexia. A year ago we were in the midst of Maudsley treatment. Tonight we ate with the memories of anorexia fresh but beginning to fade, and the hope that next year we will be that much further away from the nightmare.

My deepest wish for all of you, all of us, is that in the years to come we banish ED from all of our dinner tables. That we learn to feed ourselves and one another with joy and love and appreciation for what tastes good as well as for our selves, body and soul and mind and heart.

2 comments:

Fiona Marcella said...

Thank you for your good wishes. Unfortunately ED still lurks in our house, but we did enjoy a lovely meal

Carrie Arnold said...

I had a wonderful meal, too. Homemade mac and cheese, followed by a trip to Coldstone.

My ED isn't fully banished yet, but I'm feeding ME and not IT. And the food tastes a lot better than the lies he fed me.