If it’s a small world, then it’s a smaller Bethlehem. Here, we all have our waffles - problems to chew, decisions to ponder - and we just might find that if we take time to learn about others, we will learn about ourselves in the process. After all, we are each other’s teachers, young or old, each other’s students, confident or questioning, each other’s neighbors, regardless.

Now, let’s dig in to some scrumptious food for thought.

Rhonda Blanton frequently finds herself on her feet. Every evening, she observes a calming stroll around her neighborhood. She enjoys this ritual: “It clears my head, and it is good for me in the process!”

She takes that walk after already having spent her day standing; she is the owner of The Hair Depot, the beauty salon that she started for herself in Bethlehem Township on Willow Park Road. She has been cutting and styling hair for 25 years, a fact with which she is perfectly content. As she puts it, “I love my job, so I’m very fortunate.”

Rhonda delights in the creative aspect of her work - she is a true student of her profession, taking classes online and around the area in order to “stay current” about the latest fashion trends. Patrons routinely ask her for stylistic advice, and she routinely has “specific and honest” answers for them, choosing exactly how to curl, color, and clean to achieve the optimal aesthetic appearance.

Of course, she has certain financial obligations. She has to make sure that all of her hair supplies and styling agents are in stock (she sells an array of products, and she uses even more), and she has to keep on top of the bills.

For Rhonda, though, the joy of communicating with her customers negates the tedium of the clerical responsibilities. She sees her regulars almost “as extended family.” She knows them, and they know her. She finds cultivating interpersonal relationships with her clients to be extremely important, not only because retaining customers keeps her in business, but also because she simply relishes interacting with people.

People like her “fantastic and supportive husband.” People like her children, because for her, “being a mom is the most important aspect of [her] life.” Blanton texts daily with her daughter, who is at Alvernia University studying to become a nurse. Her son, meanwhile, is working as a welder, and he is living at home for the time being.

Rhonda explains that “between running a business, keeping the house intact, and being a mom to two kids, even though they’re grown, life is a balancing act. Luckily, I have a support system,” she says.

In truth, she was referring to her husband, but she easily could have been alluding to her feet again. Those feet have had an increasingly easier time holding her up, because she has lost 90 pounds(!) since undergoing a gastric sleeve surgery in January. She has decided to exercise diligently, and she has dedicated herself to making “the right eating choices.”

To Rhonda, the improved body image has way outweighed the weighty task of shedding weight.

“It has given me a new lease on life,” she says emphatically.

Now, she gets to find herself on her feet more comfortably. She gets to be more active; she can move freely about her shop as she attends to customers and sweeps up hair.

And, she gets to dream! Soon, she hopes to fete her feat by being swept off her feet, soaring on a zipline over the lush Costa Rican rainforest …

… But first, she aims to lose another 10 pounds, which means eschewing chewing anything like an appetizing waffle, even if it is topped with cannoli filling.