When I was little, Mom and we kids went to church every Sunday. It was just what we did along with area neighbors. Time marches on and I got out of the habit of going to church. It didn’t mean my beliefs changed. It is just that through college and work and being single not raising a family I simply got out of the habit of it.
A few weeks ago I went to a funeral for my neighbor. She had lived in the Garden City area all her life. She lived with her son just a few houses down. She had been ill. Until her illness and age, she had a very full life. She enjoyed gardening like I have been these past couple years since I have been physically well enough to do it with my disability of Fibromyalgia and Hypothyroidism that used to cause me to pass out. Then I was sent to a dietian for education on reducing my cholesterol. I have also been concerned about my weight as I felt I have been eating healthy and no weight was coming off. What I was drinking to keep me from passing out was 300 calories a serving and I was drinking it two to three times per day.
I got heat exhaustion during my first job one summer detasseling corn in Iowa. One of the things I found out later had to do with me having low sodium in my blood. Whenever I spent time out in the heat I would pass out. She suggested low calorie Gatorade or Zero Powerade. I was amazed that it worked! I was able to be outside all summer long as long as I was drinking electrolytes. It has been one of my best summers yet. I could actually mow the entire lawn by the end of the summer in one job although what worked best for me was to mow half one day and half the next.
During the funeral, the minister spoke of how this woman had a love of flowers and gardening. She especially loved roses. I don’t have any but may just get a rose bush next year in honor of her. These past few years my neighbor wasn’t able to do gardening so I hoped she enjoyed mine as I am learning each year more about it.
I was so impressed with the minister. You know when you strike a chord with someone you just know. This is what happened to me. And this minister’s church that she began her journey to preach God’s word was preaching right across the street from my house! I had always been invited to go to church there through the years but was very sick for approximately 8 years and just didn’t feel I could attend.
In 2005, when I was very sick down to 115 lbs feeling so overwhelmed with everything I found Flylady. The jobs I had I was always organized but when it came to my home it was CHAOS. My home looked like there were lots of comings and goings with no present moments of just being with myself even if it was for 5 minutes. I was looking up organizational sites and that is how I stumbled upon Flylady. Marla Cilley is The FlyLady. Since 1999, she has been a mentor to over half a million women teaching them how to organize their homes and how to love themselves. One of the ways to get both done was to establish habits that are strung into routines. It doesn’t happen overnight. One has to work at it. The beauty of it is there are women supporting each other as they are taking care of their homes, their families, and now learning how to take care of themselves.
In 2011 I made this decision I was going to concentrate on Flylady’s Monthly Habits. March the monthly habit was to practice was to get Dressed To Shoes each day. Because I had been sick for so long I just lived in pajamas and never fixing myself up. I was always feeling so overwhemed with everything. I took a leap of faith and challenged myself to get dressed to shoes, hair and makeup. By Day 8 and 9 I was really struggling and didn’t know if I could keep this going or not. So I took another leap of faith and began to take my picture and put on Facebook for accountability. Suddenly I had others that had found Flylady cheering me on. At first I would just write a bit about my experience. The flybabies as Marla calls us wanted to hear more. That developed into Daily Photo Mini Blogs that I would write about the weekly habit to practice for each day. It was only meant to be for 31 days. Still flybabies wanted to hear more. I decided to make a commitment to go for 365 days of getting dressed to shoes hair and makeup not knowing it was Leap Year. After my big accomplishment of getting dressed to shoes, hair and make up consistently for 367 days there was a celebration. Marla Cilley in my honor put one of her songs together with all 367 pictures of me on You Tube Marilyn’s Year Of Getting Dressed To Shoes!
This habit led to other habits and soon I was beginning to have routines for the first time in my life.
The comings and goings were happening again! By developing habits and routines, it finally freed up some time to just have moments of being in the present moment to just be. Suddenly I got to thinking about church again. Earlier in the year when I was visiting Mom in town I would go with her to the church that I used to belong to. This just happened recently because somehow I let my vanity get in the way. I didn’t look well for so very long and I didn’t want Mom to have to introduce me as her daughter as I looked like death warmed over and I didn’t want that burden of Mom having to explain what was wrong with me as for so many years we didn’t know until in 1989 I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia and back then most that had it wasn’t taken serious by community or medical profession except for very few.
In my twenties I had a very thriving life. I lived in Dallas, Texas working for corporations in the field of outside sales. There was lots of comings and goings involved in these jobs. The part I forgot to do though was to also just have those “Just Being In The Moments.” Had I learned the importance of this in my twenties, I may not have gotten ill to the point where I couldn’t work any longer. Sometimes I wonder what life I would be leading. Would I have raised a family and now begin to be surrounded by grandchildren?
Instead I have learn to deal with the cards that were dealt out to me. Finding Flylady was one way I began to deal with it. She always talks about God Breezes. The result of my neighbor’s death, led me to a “God Breeze”. Through Flylady, I was no long just coming and going. I was having moments of just “Being in the Moment.” and that is when this particular “God Breeze” happened. I met a minister that I connected with because I was learning to be in the moment and hear what she said at my neighbor’s funeral! I didn’t go to church the coming Sunday but I did the following where I was able to stay in the present moment and listen to what she had to say.
This morning I decided to attend church again. The theme was about the comings and goings and the feelings of being overwhelmed and not taking the time to be in the present moment. The thing is Jesus was continually coming and going and yet as busy as he was he was able to be in the present moment many times along his teachings.
Life does get busy and all of us are coming and going to the point of feeling overwhelmed and then we begin make it a habit of feeling overwhelmed and that is why everything begins to feel so difficult and we say we don’t have time. The point is that we do have time if we just unlearn the habit of feeling overwhelmed and instead begin to practice having moments of simply being in the “Present Moment”. It is proved that it is possible because as busy as Jesus was, he was able to have moments of being in the present and look what he did for so many before his death.
Keep FLYing!
Marilyn