Doctor Grandma

Happy March 5th. Had a very relaxing day home w/ my hubby today. Fasting wasn’t too bad, it’s amazing how GOOD food tastes at sunset. I enjoy cooking during the fast. It is a relief when it’s an hour before sundown, because I can start preparing food, & know when it is done, we can eat! Got thru grading part of another midterm, have essay questions left to do tomorrow. Rainy overcast day, went to buy a few groceries, watched PU lose to Iowa, watched more tv. Which leads to this thought:

How many cop shows can they come up with?? I teach criminology so I find them interesting. Now there’s one of Alaska state troopers?! Give me a break! About the only place they could be effective in any way is along the coast. I didn’t know they have banned alcohol in some 33 communities in Alaska, due to the disaster it causes in human lives, especially in poor, native communities. So of course, now they have bootleggers — people selling alcohol illegally. Alcohol screws up people’s lives and I wish I could wave a magic wand and make it disappear off the face of the earth. Then have everyone figure out how to live without it. It’s not worth it, what it does to people & families.

On another RAMBLING note, if I see another show about some white guy paying native peoples to wander around their countryside looking for “wild animals” or “beasts” or try to prove he can “survive,” I think I’m going to puke.

and that is my random post of the day.

First, this is my 39th anniversary with my husband. Makes me very old, but actually, we got married at ages 18 & 19. What did we know? Nothing!

Second, today begins Spring Break at my college. My hallway is already cleared of all activity, as classes are over for the day. Me? Have grading to do, midterm grades due Monday, just going to sit here & relax in the quiet. Outside, students are putting things in their cars & leaving. I am hungry & fasting so will just sit here & do some relaxed work.

One of my classes did really badly on their midterm. Always amazes me, as you think they are with you & then you find out, guess not. I think a lot of it has to do w/ reading word problems, putting things into context & being able to use the terms, rather than memorizing a definition. So when we return, we will do a lot of that in class. (Sucks for their midterm grades, tho’!)

Third, I’m thinking again of my book. Published but unaffordable. Just have to manage to do something about that. Noticed a few used copies are now available online for just over $90. NEW price being $108. for a 200p. double-sided paperback book. In any case, I still look at it, feel it, open it and read a few pages, & am glad it is done, published, and good quality. Just have to figure out a way to make the information publicly available. (Journal articles is one possibility.)

Four, for once we are not traveling to Indiana on my spring break. We are actually going to CHARLESTON, just the TWO of us, this Monday! That is a new experience! We always go visit family or travel w/ family. It will be fun.

College basketball game last night ended after 11:00pm in triple overtime. And we LOST. I had 2 hours of work this morning before leaving at 8am to go print and grade 2 midterms. Today is the 2nd day of the fast. So now you know how I’m feeling today!

. . . Now 5:35, one hour before the sun goes down, I want to write that doing a fast teaches you many things. One thing it teaches you, is how most of the world feels when they go around and function in their daily life while hungry. It is a weird sensation. You just get used to feeling hungry, and then you forget about it. It becomes a part of you, a part of how you physically feel all throughout the day. So you find yourself thinking things like, “Wow, I really don’t feel good, maybe I’m coming down with something, my head hurts, my throat is burning, etc.” And then you remember, “Oh yeah, I’m fasting.”

Two-thirds of the world’s people live on something comparable to $2.00 /day. It just makes you think about people who walk around every day feeling like this and not knowing they’re going to have a nice dinner at the hour of sunset.

Today began a 19-day fast in the Baha’i calendar. “YOU DON’T EAT FOR 19 DAYS??”  YES, we would die if we didn’t. It’s really not that difficult. We just do without food and/or drink from sunrise to sundown. About 12 hours.

There are many health benefits to fasting, but I can tell you that I would never do it for health reasons. Not in a million years. The only way I do it is for the love of God. What gift can I give? Only sacrifice, and this is not much compared to all the sufferings of the Holy Ones of God. That is one of the signs of a true Prophet of God. They don’t have money or worldly goods, they are humble servants of the people of all classes and categories, and they suffer their whole life long.

So we are getting ready to break our first day of fasting here, my husband and I, and I thought I’d try to post something — anything!— during this 19-day fast, once a day. Whatever is on my mind. That’s the fun of doing a blog.

For today we are driving thru Hardees (gross!!) because we’re on our way to some Newberry basketball! Go Wolves!!

Here is a quote for the day, straight out of the New Testament, Matthew, which shows that Christ talked about fasting:

6:16 Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
 
6:17 But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; 6:18 That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.
            (King James Bible, Matthew)

15th day of the Baha’i month of the fast, where we do not eat or drink from sunrise to sundown.

For me, it often happens that I take one drink at mid-morning, then make it through the rest of the day. By the end of the day, truly, your body has grown used to the feeling of hunger. It’s not “hunger pains” anymore, but just that your brain has trouble thinking. Focusing is not happening anymore. Your mind wanders, and just feels tired.

One of the purposes of the fast is to connect to the rest of the world, in the sense that in reality, a WHOLE LOT of the world’s population goes to bed hungry. This is hard for us to remember, in America. 2/3 of the world lives on something comparable to $2.00/day. Worrying about children surviving, or dying of malnutrition or simple diarrhea which could be stopped with a simple teaspoon full of medicine that the developed, industrial-based world has readily available to them. We saw just a hint of this in the Hurricane Katrina disaster, where people holed up in the SUPERDOME, of all places, had babies and old people dying for lack of WATER! It was unimaginable. Especially here in America. But it happened.

Baha’u’llah says, “Tell the rich of the midnight sighing of the poor. . . ” one of my favorite lines in His writings.

Tell the rich

                  of the midnight sighing

                                                  of the poor.

Why would the poor be sighing at midnight?? Shouldn’t they be asleep? Perhaps they are hungry.

Late in the day, when I truly fast, my fingers are stone cold. It’s like your system is partly shut down. Circulation slows, the brain is muddled, yet you can go through your day. You can make it, it’s just not the easiest thing.

And for us, we think of the suffering of Baha’u’llah, and of the Holy Ones, and our intensity of love deepens. To be close to Him is our longing and desire. Such a sweet soul, One who endured the taunting and cruelty of the world with supreme grace, “the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace”.

4th day of the Baha’i fast. This is a time we do not eat or drink from sunrise to sundown, for one Baha’i month, or 19 days, March 2nd to the 20th. Then March 21st is our New Year.

To learn more of the Baha’i Faith, go to: www.bahai.org

It is a wonderful faith that teaches uniting the peoples of the world into one common cause, one universal faith under one God.

So it is this time of day, when there is only one hour left, that it surprises me the day of fasting is almost over. I am not distraught. My body is not breaking down. And I can still think. It really is not that hard. You have to be careful to drink water at night, and eat well for dinner and breakfast. It’s a powerful exercise in obedience, doing without thing you think you need, and giving up something for God. You think about your faith all day long. (Why am I doing this?? What is the purpose of all this?? etc.)

The Muslims have a 30-day fast, the Christians give up something for Lent, Jews have certain days when they fast. It’s familiar in all cultures, all faiths, to a certain extent. People sick, younger than 15, older than 70, pregnant, women in their cycles, people traveling more than 9 hours, do not fast. 19 days is just right. And I would NEVER accomplish it if it were not required for my faith. And whether or not I fully fast is totally up to me, no one is watching me to report if I break the fast.

Happy fasting everyone.

Toward the end of the day,

it doesn’t matter anymore,

The hunger is there,

but the agony is past,

the head slightly foggy,

the throat so dry,

the burning relentless, and powerful,

It all becomes a part of you.

Then we fill our stomachs,

and quench the thirst,

and some measure of sweetness

disappears,

no more constant reminder

is left for us,

of the sufferings our Lord endured,

There is only sleep

until we awake

to another sunrise, another day,

and the fast begins again.