{"id":738,"date":"2011-09-16T06:19:49","date_gmt":"2011-09-16T10:19:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondgorgeous\/?p=738"},"modified":"2011-09-15T22:24:16","modified_gmt":"2011-09-16T02:24:16","slug":"the-black-bear-in-the-closet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/2011\/09\/the-black-bear-in-the-closet.html","title":{"rendered":"The Black Bear in the Closet"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cGrandma &#8212; There\u2019s a black bear in your closet!\u201d three-year-old Sylvia shrieked.\u00a0 \u201cCome and see.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I sighed. I was really getting tired of that bear.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are no bears in my closet,\u201d I said firmly.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondgorgeous\/files\/2011\/09\/IMG_0042.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-741\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/261\/2011\/09\/IMG_0042-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" \/><\/a>\u201cBut Grandma, I can see him, too,\u201d said her cousin Justin, who was also three on that long-ago day. \u201cIf you will just come and look.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>They kept on going into the closet on tiptoe and then coming out screaming in enjoyable terror.\u00a0 Finally, I gave in.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m going in the closet,\u201d I said. \u201cThere is NO BEAR in my closet.\u00a0 After this we are through playing \u2018bear.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I threw open the door and walked in with the look-alike cousins hot on my heels and hiding behind my skirt.\u00a0 They pointed to a dark corner. \u201cThere he IS,\u201d they shouted.<\/p>\n<p>I looked behind the clothes and saw &#8212; a black bear.\u00a0 I saw him clearly &#8212; the dark, furry mass of his body, his smooth black snout, and his gleaming, piggy eye. \u00a0After the first initial panic and urge to flee, I stood my ground.\u00a0 There could not be a black bear in my closet, no matter what my eyes told me.\u00a0I stepped forward and pushed back the clothes.\u00a0 The bear body suddenly transformed into a sleeping bag.\u00a0 The black snout became a black plastic suit hanger and the eye nothing more than the light gleaming on the metal hook of the hanger.<\/p>\n<p>How had I been persuaded that I saw a black bear?\u00a0 My grandchildren believed in it so vividly, that I found myself seeing what they saw &#8212; even though I knew it couldn\u2019t be.<\/p>\n<p>How does this apply to our quest for a healthy lifestyle?\u00a0 Be wary of the people who talk you into seeing black bears where none exist.\u00a0 Friends and family will tell you that you are trapped.\u00a0 That everybody gains back the weight they lost.\u00a0 That there is no cure for \u201cmiddle-aged spread.\u201d\u00a0 If you believe them and their negative \u201cbear\u201d talk, your healthy eating and exercise plan will never get off the ground.\u00a0 There IS something you can do.\u00a0 If you make wise choices, you WILL lose weight and you will see a difference in your health. If you are still alive and kicking, it isn\u2019t too late for you.<\/p>\n<p>There isn\u2019t a black bear in the closet.\u00a0 Don\u2019t be fooled!<\/p>\n<p><em>Eating to live and living for Christ,<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Susan Jordan Brown<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cGrandma &#8212; There\u2019s a black bear in your closet!\u201d three-year-old Sylvia shrieked.\u00a0 \u201cCome and see.\u201d I sighed. I was really getting tired of that bear. \u201cThere are no bears in my closet,\u201d I said firmly. \u201cBut Grandma, I can see him, too,\u201d said her cousin Justin, who was also three on that long-ago day. \u201cIf&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":423,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-encouragement"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Black Bear in the Closet - Beyond Gorgeous<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/2011\/09\/the-black-bear-in-the-closet.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Black Bear in the Closet - Beyond Gorgeous\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cGrandma &#8212; There\u2019s a black bear in your closet!\u201d three-year-old Sylvia shrieked.\u00a0 \u201cCome and see.\u201d I sighed. I was really getting tired of that bear. \u201cThere are no bears in my closet,\u201d I said firmly. \u201cBut Grandma, I can see him, too,\u201d said her cousin Justin, who was also three on that long-ago day. \u201cIf&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/2011\/09\/the-black-bear-in-the-closet.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beyond Gorgeous\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-09-16T10:19:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-09-16T02:24:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondgorgeous\/files\/2011\/09\/IMG_0042-300x225.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"sbrown\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Black Bear in the Closet - Beyond Gorgeous","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/2011\/09\/the-black-bear-in-the-closet.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Black Bear in the Closet - Beyond Gorgeous","og_description":"\u201cGrandma &#8212; There\u2019s a black bear in your closet!\u201d three-year-old Sylvia shrieked.\u00a0 \u201cCome and see.\u201d I sighed. I was really getting tired of that bear. \u201cThere are no bears in my closet,\u201d I said firmly. \u201cBut Grandma, I can see him, too,\u201d said her cousin Justin, who was also three on that long-ago day. \u201cIf&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/2011\/09\/the-black-bear-in-the-closet.html","og_site_name":"Beyond Gorgeous","article_published_time":"2011-09-16T10:19:49+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-09-16T02:24:16+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondgorgeous\/files\/2011\/09\/IMG_0042-300x225.jpg"}],"author":"sbrown","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/2011\/09\/the-black-bear-in-the-closet.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/2011\/09\/the-black-bear-in-the-closet.html","name":"The Black Bear in the Closet - Beyond Gorgeous","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/2011\/09\/the-black-bear-in-the-closet.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/2011\/09\/the-black-bear-in-the-closet.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondgorgeous\/files\/2011\/09\/IMG_0042-300x225.jpg","datePublished":"2011-09-16T10:19:49+00:00","dateModified":"2011-09-16T02:24:16+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/#\/schema\/person\/710ec516b61bcd3c78925c0c31c5afe6"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/2011\/09\/the-black-bear-in-the-closet.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/2011\/09\/the-black-bear-in-the-closet.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/2011\/09\/the-black-bear-in-the-closet.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondgorgeous\/files\/2011\/09\/IMG_0042-300x225.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondgorgeous\/files\/2011\/09\/IMG_0042-300x225.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/2011\/09\/the-black-bear-in-the-closet.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Black Bear in the Closet"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/","name":"Beyond Gorgeous","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Susan Jordan Brown","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/#\/schema\/person\/710ec516b61bcd3c78925c0c31c5afe6","name":"sbrown","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/author\/sbrown"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/423"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=738"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":743,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738\/revisions\/743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}