Lent, Fat Tuesday and Mardi Gras Day

Oy vey az meir!  Alice dawlink, I'm impressed!  Your devotion is fantastic and your writing style is true to the heart.  I'm very proud of you for giving up Snickers, frankly, I don't think I could do that; you're brave.  As for giving up TV and the less internet time, you must shtoltsirn (be proud) of yourself, as I'm sure G-d is.  Remember you're not expected to be perfect.  No one is perfect bubbeleh.

Your

Yenta

Day one of Lent. 

Some people say at first fasting is hard, but it becomes easier as time goes by.  Today was rather easy.  I had meditated upon my plan of action and I was psyched up and ready to take on the challenge.

I am glad I had several herb teas in the house that do not have caffeine because that is one of the things I will forgo during this time.  I enjoyed a couple of cups of that instead of the regular orange pekot/black tea.  I always sweeten my tea with stevia, so that  did not present a problem with my abstinence of sugar. 

We only have "king cake" once a year and I absolutely love it.  There was plenty left on the island in the kitchen this morning, but because I had decided to give up sugar for Lent, and am committed and had my mind conditioned to that plan of action, I really was not tempted by that wonderful king cake in plain view.   My son and his family took it home with them today. My son is giving up sugar for Lent but the rest of his family is not.

I had planned to watch less television during Lent. We did not turn the TV on until the 6 o'clock news came on this evening.  We spent the morning enjoying the grandchildren, knowing they would have to return home today.

Mid afternoon I wanted something crunchy and opted for a raw carrot.  I had a waldorf salad, modified to be healthy, as my desert for dinner. 

I did it.  One day is behind me.  I did not eat sugars, simple carbs, nightshade vegetable, and I did cut television and internet time.  My praise and thanksgiving prayer time is done, and I feel good. 

One day at a time, that's the way we accomplish all things anyway.  I am happy with my efforts for today.  One day toward a better life and 39 days to go.  I'll keep you posted.

 I think this is a pretty awesome post, and wonderful follow-up posts by Yenta and Alice!!

I have only learned the meaning of lent and giving up something that was hard a years ago. I also try to give up something new every year. I try to give up that one thing I think I can't live without. 

For lent this year I am giving up soda and bagels. I always drink soda when I go out and really need to stop, too much sugar! And well bagels, bagels are my comfort food. I LOVE them! :) I also decided that I will go to the gym 4 days a week in hoping to jump a new beginning and really try to take care of myself. 

I went to yoga tonight (with my ashes) and got the weirdest looks from people! It was quite amusing and I definitely got a good laugh out of it! One sweet girl told me I had dirt of my face, all i could say was thank you but this is for ash Wednesday, she didn't even know what it was and she did not want to hear it. I'm still laughing thinking about it! 

It's so neat to get your pespective, Faith, and that's why I am so happy to have you contribute when you're able, at Lumigrate.  When I was 19 I got a job that I held for years typing for the Statistics Dept at Colorado State University, and my peer coworker was Catholic.  I got to my desk one day and started to talk with her like I did every day and noticed she had what I thought was an ink smudge on her forehead.  Being from Chicago, I don't think she'd ever met anyone who knew so little about the Catholic religion, based on her looking at me like I had lobsters coming out of my head as she said 'those are ashes, it's Ash Wednesday'. 

I know that I heard her out about what that was and I remember learning from her that the names John, Paul, etc. were Biblical names, so that might tell you something about what I knew.  (I grew up in rural Colorado, my father intentionally insisted we not have religious training and made our own decisions about that as adults. We didn't have much television or telephone/communication with the outside world.)  Oh, I remember her talking about the next 'perish over' from where she grew up and didn't know what a parish was. She probably wouldn't know what a 'parcel' was with land either. 

When I was accepted into OT school (which was a BIG deal -- very competititive, 1:6 were accepted, average GPA that year was 3.74 that got in), they reviewed my transcripts because I had been in college on and off for fifteen years at that point in time.  I had taken Eastern Religions when I was 20 or so, and the lead instructor who was in charge of letting students in and all that interviewed me, as they were going to make me take a more current religion class, until we had a discussion.  What they were looking for was that we were able to be respectful of other people's religions and that we'd utilize spirituality correctly as therapists in the future.  I was mid-30s at that point and could see what they were getting at with that, as I've always had people not very gracefully trying to turn me onto their religion when they find out I'm not Christian.

So in August of 1994 the BIG DAY happened were we all checked in with the OT Department at our scheduled time (if we were not there at that time they gave our slot to someone on the waiting list), then we started classes the next day with the same instructor who I'd checked in with and had the previous discussion, Louise Wendt White.  Here we'd been working our tails off to get into the program and were eager to get going on real OT stuff' ...   and she started with two days of talking about the genetic similarities between human and nonhuman primates. 

I'm a lover of theory and things such as this, so I enjoyed it, yet I recall thinking 'I wonder why she'd starting out like this for us, what 'page' she's intending to get us on'.  It turns out they did it to essentially flush out people who couldn't handle scientific information related to where humans came from, the same way the difficulty of the prerequisites were intended to flush out people who didn't have enough brain power to work in the medical realm of occupational therapy (which presents quite a problem for people like me who have the brain power, we just have learning disabilities).  One young woman withdrew that first week after a meeting because they agreed she couldn't be an effective therapist working with people if she had religious views which she felt so strongly were the only beliefs that anyone should have. That was the fall of 1993.

Fastforward to the summer of 2009 when I encountered Alice, the wonderful writer of this piece and who exhudes such total ownership of her beliefs that it is to me, simply marvelous and admirable.  We've had many respectful conversations and I was just thrilled to see what she posted on Lent of 2010, which you read, above.  I continue to learn, just as I did from Joanne 30 years ago, from all of those around me, I hope, and mostly today I return to learn again from Alice with this wonderful piece. 

Good to see you ALL here interacting -- don't forget we also have Yenta at Lumigrate for spirituality pieces (Yenta's are 'connectors'/matchmakers in Jewish communities and I'd asked someone to write at Lumigrate from that perspective as well, and we ended up with a humorous, fictional, hippy Yenta who brings wisdom and FUN to Lumigrate).   And I hope I'm doing my part!  I'm definitely inspired by you all and what you are sharing here. Whether it's Alice or those commenting or those reading THANK YOU for making Lumigrate brighter.

~~ Mardy

Live and Learn, Learn and Live Better!  

For those who follow Lumigrate closely, you'll know from the blog from the fall about Alice's breast cancer diagnosis that she had to work out a lot of details and the doctors needed to be both in town to do her breast tissue removal and replace it for reconstruction; all one long surgery, two different surgeons. She was a "Take Charge/Proactive Patient" as award-winning author Martine Ehrenclou and I call it, and she checked into infection rates and so also made arrangements for the surgery at a hospital she had the most confidence in. She struggled, despite her best efforts, with infection, and had to undergo follow up procedures/surgeries and had a very, very, very challenging time between the time of her initial surgery and the end of the year. She's on the mend now, though, and was approved by the surgeon to drive again! I saw a photo of her yesterday and she looks to me, better than ever -- good color and with the beautiful glow people who are right in their spiritual 'zone' have about them, in my view at least. 

She is being given some time to 'regroup' and 'recharge', and the current plan is that phase two and chemotherapy, will start a ways into March.  She was starting seeds on wet coffee filters this week, looking forward to digging in her beloved Earth. 

Alice, I hope that you know you are welcome to come share here more if you wish, and if you'd rather enjoy every delicious moment of your FAT TUESDAY 2013 and Lent sans Lumigrate.com, that is equally GRATE with me. I very much appreciate your desire to have Lumigrate follow what happens to a woman who has long-standing fibromyalgia treated through conventional means when she gets breast cancer as well. Infection is the "I" as you know, of SHINE, or SHIN, depending upon which fibromyalgia expert you follow. Dr Teitelbaum and I prefer to have the E for Exercise on and I then say 'BUT ACTIVITY is really the world I like better!'. Dr Spurlock prefers to not complicate the issue with E because so many people who come to him, in his experience, have had difficulties with the E part if they try it without an expert about exercise/activity and fibromyalgia.  

This was, as Alice knows, part of my concern for her with her recover, as if she was too active she saw that her wound didn't heal well that day. But if you aren't active enough, you can develop other problems in the very short and longer term. But due to Alice's YEARS of spiritual work, she knows better than anyone which option to chose when presented with the experts' opinions. 

With all my gratitude and blessings, Alice, for your Lentin season and for your desire to help education in 2012/13 about breast cancer treatment ins and outs for someone with fibromyalgia and chronic pain. This is now our FOURTH YEAR since you became one of our expert writers at Lumigrate.com, after Yenta made her big splash in the fall of 2009, just as you were undergoing your neuro-orthopedic surgery.

I realized how many of the women on Facebook who were mutual friends who had fibromyalgia interests were supporting each other and 'praying' for each other, etc., despite their vast spiritual and religious differences and so made the invitation for three to write. (The third is the Cutie-cle Nail Lady, a pseudonym which was her preference, to remain anonymous, like the woman who writes as Yenta. Alice on the other hand, is truly named Alice. And she IS AMAZING in Alabama, in my mind.)

I look forward to seeing what each and everyone's futures hold, ALL THREE are overall doing just so much better than when we all met up on FB when Lumigrate was an unknown to them fledgeling website and I thank you so much for sharing your beautiful, wonderful talents to help us be better for others who come in your virtual footsteps.   Live and Learn. Learn and Live Better!! ~~ Mardy

2014 update on Alice -- on Monday I saw her post on Facebook that she was having a really good energy day and was humorously talking about the mental and physical workout she was getting by doing some deep housekeeping. Today I noticed she was enjoying the clean living room and watching Mardi Gras parades on television, and talking about making plans for next year with her son's work schedule so they could go as an extended family and enjoy the festivities. I'd say -- she's doing well this year! I have no doubt she will be using the season this year to further continue her deep spiritual connectedness. Very much a part of our health and wellness as a whole being, spirituality is.

Thank you all for enjoying this piece for the first time or as a repeat performance as one of our 'oldies but goodies'. All three of these writers who grace the pages of Lumigrate's forums are really examples of how things are for the present time and they change, they've all gone on to other things in life for meaning and value and I wish each one well whenever I am reminded of their contributions here. ~ Mardy

Here's a link that might be of value to those interested in this topic: Provided to me by another Lumigrate YOUser, also from the South (USA). Like the soils from the summer, fall, and winter, with the fruits of the labor harvested and having gone on -- our YOUsers (and experts) can be like soils turning over in the spring for another new season of growth.  www.catholiccompany.com/blog/how-to-explain-your-ashes