Hope – Michelle Sparkes

Have you ever lost something precious to you and gone searching, scouring every nook and cranny to recover that precious item? I’ve lost many things that have set me on this search. Some more precious to me than others. The joy I experience when I recover something I have lost and searched for, is hard to describe. The more precious the item is to me, regardless of its material value, the deeper my joy in its recovery. I got thinking about this this morning when I got up at the crack of dawn to try and recover an item that I lost in the sands of the beach yesterday. As I was driving home I stopped to let some schoolgirls cross the road. They were on their way to the same high school I attended when I first began my slippery slide down the scales into anorexia as a young teen. What would have helped me then and at every point in my journey—into, through and beyond—anorexia and disordered eating, was to know at a deep heart level the preciousness of my life. If you are somewhere along that pathway I want to tell you your life is more precious than anything I can give voice to, and there is One who will never ever give up searching for you until you are found in a way that you know the preciousness and unshakeable worth and value of your life. You will need human help as well to recover from disordered eating. In my view it’s not one or the other. You need both human and divine help. In my experience that divine reassurance—of your preciousness, of your unshakeable worth and value—experienced deep in your heart and soul can help you hold on and move forward when you’re attempted to stop searching for it. [email protected]

I have just received the news that a friend’s niece has passed from medical complications after a long battle with anorexia. My heart breaks…I have no words….for you who loved her…and for she whom you loved. But I want to stand with you in this moment. In silence more than anything. To acknowledge your immense pain and suffering. To acknowledge her immense pain and suffering. To honour the life of she who has passed. She who struggled so strenuously and for so long against such an incredibly difficult dis-ease and insidiously destructive dis-order. I stand with you in acknowledgment…and in solidarity. I grieve with you, and for you, in your loss. I hold onto a hope that I accept you may not feel or even want to entertain in this moment. That death is not the end. That Love never fails. I hold onto that hope for you and for your loved one. Despite all. I stand with you. I see you…but not nearly as well or as compassionately or as helpfully as He who created you and your loved one…He who knows each hair of your head and hers, and every breath that you and she breathed, He who loves you both in a way beyond description. May He fill you with a hope for yourself and for your loved one in a way that seems impossible in the darkness. I am so deeply sorry for your loss.

Wherever you are, whatever space you find yourself in, may your heart be encouraged, you are not beyond hope, you are not beyond help. Nothing is impossible with the God who loves you. If you feel exhausted, defeated, hopeless or despairing, I pray you experience His grace reaching in and taking hold of you, lifting you up and out of the miry clay, the stuck places, the hopeless spaces. I pray you experience His truth strengthening your bones, bringing surety to your steps, bringing peace to your heart despite the challenges you face. Hope and help, natural and supernatural. For me the help of the Helper has been the one thing that has made the biggest difference. Again and again. 

If you struggle with disordered eating, self and body concerns 3 key things you will need to recover a life worth living are compassion, curiosity and support. Listen here for more…

Dear Carer you are a lifeline to the one you love. I know it can be tremendously challenging to watch someone you love restricting, starving, bingeing, purging or punishing their body. You KNOW these behaviours do not produce health, well-being or happiness. How can you assist your loved one move away from damaging behaviours and towards healing and recovery? Here are 3 key thoughts to help keep the ‘lifeline’ of communication open between you and your older teen.

If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed or discouraged by an eating disorder ‘label’ or diagnosis this podcast will help you see that you are not alone, unusual or beyond help…and if you need more encouragement or ‘hard evidence’ get hold of my free ebook and begin your journey to freedom.

I traveled through an eating disorder in my teen and early adult years (as illustrated) and lost ~ 15 years of my life spinning my wheels on the eating disorder treadmill because I couldn’t SEE what I was dealing with or why I was struggling and I didn’t have the knowledge, skills or support to get free or get through that territory more quickly. I lost a lot of time, health and opportunity as a result and it’s made me passionate and committed to helping others not do the same. Food is the symptom not the heart of an eating disorder. If you need help get on touch : [email protected]

This series is designed to inspire you and help you dream again; to recover the hopes and aspirations deep inside you that may have got lost in your battle with an ED. When your eyes are cast down, lost in the life-consuming territory of an ED, you need a vision of the future that will draw you forward, like a rope attached to an anchor out of the quagmire of your ED and into your future. Freedom beckons and that freedom has context.  Within these stories of inspiration and dreaming, lie principles and keys to help you on your journey (things like vision, knowledge, focus, perseverance, courage, support), because like the journey of a dream, your recovery will meet challenges and opposition. Beyond the vision of freedom (from an ED), I pray these stories bring to your remembrance the hopes and dreams buried deep inside and long forgotten or perhaps never truly awakened, that will give your freedom context.

When the dream is bigger than the pain, we will push through.

My guest today is Kelly McJannet, visionary CEO of Food Ladder, a wonderful young lady heading up an outstanding not for profit organisation, doing extraordinary work to feed some of the most impoverished and disadvantaged communities around the globe, including here in Ramingining, Australia’s East Arnhem Land. In the process, Foodladder creates jobs, hope, passion, purpose and food security in these local communities, building a legacy of social capital that is impossible to put a price on. Kelly has so many good things to say. One of the key principles I heard Kelly repeat time and again in our interview, was the importance of having a clear vision of why you’re doing what you’re doing and the knowledge to backup your strategy – this is like a compass that keeps you heading true north, resisting the distractions and helping you to hold your position against opposition, discouragement and disillusionment. These principles have tremendous application to the recovery journey from an eating disorder and form the basis of the 4×4 Freedom Express. If you want help to get free from your ED, you know where to find me.

Questions and Feedback welcome.

[email protected]

mp_sparkes

“Food ladder uses the most effective technologies to feed the most disadvantaged communities in a global social enterprise movement.”

Kelly McJannett, CEO FoodLadder

2016 Winner, Australia’s 100 Most Influential Women (Social Enterprise and Not For Profit)

I love the way newness (fresh hope and expectation) are woven into the very fabric of our existence in the natural world. We get a new day every 24 hours, a new season every 3 months and a new year every 365 days. I want to encourage you whatever your past year has been, whatever your life has been, this is a fresh day, this is a new year and there is new hope for you. Here are 3 ways you can experience new hope this year.

Questions and feedback welcome.

[email protected]

@mp_sparkes