Tonight our Ward got together to start a Ward fast. For those of you not familiar, fasting for us is "to go without food and drink voluntarily for a certain period of time. Fasting combined with sincere prayer can strengthen us spiritually, bring us closer to God, and help us prepare ourselves and others to receive His blessings." (This from the Church website). I never cared for this particular practice much, I love food and I typically just find myself getting really grumpy when I don't eat. Plus, I have to get on a plane tomorrow for a long time and the thought of not eating while traveling was not exciting.
But I was so glad I went tonight, it was incredible to see how many people came just to show their support for our family, and how many people are going to go without food until tomorrow night for us! I know how hard it is for me and how much I complain about it, but several kids George's age (first and second graders) said they were going to try to fast for us tomorrow. I guess the 22 year-old doesn't get to complain about that anymore.
I just wanted to say again, before these posts started getting all medical, that we so appreciate all the support and love that everyone has shown us. We've been overwhelmed with the offers of help and to see all those people tonight was incredible. Someone made the comment that there were more people there tonight than come on Sunday, which apparently means my mom can draw a bigger crowd than my dad! It's been a really powerful thing for us, me especially, to see how many people are really there for us. So thank you! And we look forward to using all of you over the next few weeks :)
While it's hard to see this period in your family's life as a gift, because cancer is some lousy present, the experience does deliver amazingly precious moments that allow you to extract goodness from something hideous. And that my friend, is beating the beast a little bit every day. In my experience, this helped me build inner resolve and courage to tackle whatever lies ahead.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to fast too now -- Previously in my world, the exercise was to demonstrate atonement -- i like the idea of it as a means to connection much better!