MAMACADABRA

No need to send a strait jacket just yet (not today anyway), I’m talking about lent, not that “I give up” generally speaking. Oh, ye of so little faith.

So about lent. It’s true that when Cousin A and I refer to church, that we are actually talking about Neiman Marcus. And it’s true that I don’t go to church each week. And it’s true that the reason we chose to attend our current church is because of their music (truly like going to the symphony on Sunday mornings) and because our pastor could moonlight as a comedian.

I don’t consider myself to be a heathen, but I also don’t really “do” lent. Bleck…it seems like a lot of work. And really, people’s first assumption is that if I were in fact going to give something up for lent, that it should be Diet Coke. And that…I mean that…that’s just absolute nonsense. If God wanted me to stop drinking Diet Coke he surely wouldn’t allow McDonald’s to peddle 32 ounces of the junk for a mere $1.07. I mean seriously.

While I’ve never really done lent, I’ve had friends who have gone to great lengths to give something up those 40 days, and I’ve admired their will. I’ve had friends give up sugar, meat, Diet Coke (I’ve never seen this one last the full 40 days), etc. And it always amazes me that people can follow through with it when they are giving up something that is such a large part of their lives.

Well, today I had an idea. I was getting out of my car, and I’m wearing particularly tall heels today, and when I stepped down with the leg that has the bum hip I winced. It hurts more on days that I wear higher heels. It’s sore today and I’m supposed to run again tonight. I started wondering what would happen if instead of saying out loud “it hurts!!!” what if I said “feels great!” There are days that I feel like I’m saying “it HURTS!” all day long. I told you the other day that saying things out loud makes them real for me. What if that applies to pain as well? And furthermore, what if it applies to the way I feel all the time?

Most women will attest that they don’t feel well a lot of the time. I talk to myself (no, I said NO STRAIT JACKET JUST YET!!!) so when I don’t feel well I will often say out loud “bleck…I do NOT feel well!!!” Well what if I replace it with “I feel good today!” Or instead of saying “I’m SO TIRED today!” I say “I feel surprisingly rested!”

I have no idea if changing what comes out of my mouth will make any difference in how I actually feel or not…but what if it did???

TODAY: What if I replace any sayings of despair (i.e. “I’m tired,” “I don’t feel well,” “this hurts,” etc.) with something positive? What if it actually changed how I feel physically? That would be truly miraculous!