#384: Why Are We Here?

Why are we here? Not here on earth, but here on a nutritional site? To say we want to lose weight or become healthier seems almost like a cliche. Let's dig deeper. Why are we here?

I suggest for many of us we are here because we reached a point in our lives where we didn't like ourselves very much anymore. We didn't like enduring health problems. We didn't like not being able to do what "normal sized" people do like sit in one airplane or movie theater seat or walk at a mall or go to a pool or the beach without having to wear what amounts to a tent instead of a normal bathing suit.

Sure, those are all valid reasons. But let's dig even further.

Couldn't we learn about nutrition and working out without being active on an Internet site? Couldn't we get books and videos from our library and bookstores instead of spending time blogging and posting messages and replies and sending Spark emails? Definitely.

But being active, I believe, takes us back to an era before computers when we wrote letters to friends and family and even had pen pals we would hope to meet in person one day. We need and want the interaction we receive here. Some us may even crave it. I do. I look forward to emails telling me there is a response to a blog I wrote or to connect me with a topic I'm following or that someone thought enough about me to click that they liked something on my activity feed.

There are so many people whose lives I follow through their blogs and posts. I feel as if we have been friends in the sense that we have "met" and formed bonds. I have laughed with my new-found friends and I have cried with them. I have prayed for them and their friends and asked for support in return. I feel a part of many people's lives now.

This yearning for friendship, I believe, is why we are here. I know I truly love my SP pen pals and look forward to meeting many more. Sure the library and bookstores and even the Internet all have the information we need to live healthier lifestyles.

But what they do not offer is companionship, support, encouragement, inspiration, compassion and prayers.

But SP does. THAT is why I am here. How about you?