ReLENT For Baby Boy: Will You Join Me?

I Keep getting the question;

"SO HOW'S IT GOING NOW THAT LENT IS OVER?"

:: Tatertot enjoying Easter provisions ::

I've noticed many of you asking with a half-grin and raised eyebrows. I know what you're really trying get at. You want to know if I've since binged myself into a mind fuzzing stupor. Well, yes I have. Okay? And I was at peace with my almost constant sugar-stuffing until I tried to go to a cycle class yesterday.

QUESTION:
What do you get when you combine months of NO exercise with a 3 day diet of Chocolate eggs and Girl Scout cookies?

ANSWER:
A soft-fleshy-sweaty-purple-faced lady, hovered over her bike, dizzy and shamelessly moaning while trying as hard as she can to not throw up in a hot (very hot) small, enclosed room nauseously crammed with people. Even during the stretch at the end I just sat on the moist, gritty floor, hunched over.

But I don't embarrass that easily, so it's all good.
And I learned from it. I will never exercise again. :)

QUESTION: Just now, when you read the word 'question' - did Dwight's voice come into your head?

But I digress (it's my nature, please forgive.)

.~***~.

MY POINT IN THIS POST IS THAT I DID IT. I REALLY DID IT! 45 DAYS WITHOUT TREATS OR DESSERTS. IF YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I LOVE TREATS YOU MIGHT WONDER HOW IT WAS EVEN POSSIBLE. I WILL SHARE MY SECRET:

HOW TO BE SUCCESSFUL AT LENT

A gal we'll call, HelloKitty (a Lent pro), helped me with this: Basically, you need to find someone to pray for. Whatever you give up, do it for that person. Every time you are tempted to give in, you can use that opportunity to pray/help/call/etc. the person for whom you are fasting or "Lenting". Doing Lent this way gives greater meaning a purpose to your chosen method of self-denial for the 40 day period. And one feels more compelled to stick with it, doing it this way.

Get it?

I chose my cousin Melinda.

:: Expecting Mother by Razia Gershon, brass (click) ::

Melinda is my bosom cousin. We are 6 months apart in age. We practically have the same name for heaven sakes. We've always lived a good 30 miles apart but growing up, we managed to spend whole summers together, taking the city bus if we had to. She's been a really, really good friend. She's also expecting a baby boy in a few weeks. And Baby has a tumor.

She found out through ultrasound that her baby possibly has a neuroblastoma. Her baby, has a tumor. And it's a big one (if it is a neuroblastoma, they are considering it a stage 3).

Can you imagine having to deal with something like this? Melinda is such an amazing example of keeping great perspective and patience in such a trying time. Nobody is quite sure how to treat the situation. So far, They (doctors and other medical professionals) have been watching the baby carefully, monitoring his growth as well as the growth of the tumor.

I did Lent for her, which has ended. But it's not over for Melinda. She's going to be induced May 7th (39 weeks gestation, thankfully!). The baby will be taken straight to Primary Children's Medical Center, and then they'll try to figure out the best course of action.

I'M PUTTING THIS ON MY BLOG BECAUSE:

• I believe in prayer.

• I believe in miracles.

• I believe in the power of collective consciousness reaching out for good.

• Someone out there may know something about this situation, or may know someone who knows someone. I think the hardest part of all this (for Melinda) is feeling like everyone is in the dark about what to do. No one she's met (yet) has really seen this before.

SO WILL YOU JOIN ME IN "CONTINUING LENT" (sort of)?

::"Hold My Heart" photo by Helga. Check out her Flickr page, here::

Anything that you feel will help. Prayer, fasting, karma-whooshing (okay, I made that term up, but you know what I mean, right?), a candle-light vigil, the burning of smudge sticks, some first-hand knowledge on unusually large neuroblastomas in unborn babies...

As soon as I get off this dang computer, I'm going to find something that will remind me to think of her EVERY day. And not forget. So I will remember to pray, or call, or show up and babysit her darling little girl, SOMETHING...

I'll let you know what I come up with. Ideas are welcome. :)

[.~***~.]