Know Jack #194 Minor Miracles Using Only 5 Ingredients
I believe in miracles. I pray for one daily with a combination of hope and expectation. There are some these days who scoff at expectation as a highway to heartbreak and that is fine it you wish to float. Swimming requires an expectation of one’s ability and the steadfastness of physics. Floating will take you where the river goes. Swimming will take you wherever you wish to go.
As for, heartbreak? I think better a heartbreaking vision, than no vision at all. But then, I’m a writer and heartbreak is an indispensable tool in the writer’s chest. Don’t dismay, so are joy and happiness. To every thing there is a season and a time to every purpose, don’t slice life off short.
But back to miracles. I have seen some, nothing in it as dramatic as the parting waters or calling fire down from heaven on my enemies. But life altering, nonetheless. I have also seen transformation, which is a kind of minor miracle. Minor in that transformation is not a wholly supernatural event. To undergo personal transformation, personal effort is involved.
Though I am loath to, I am going to site myself as an example. I don’t need to get permission or risk legal repercussions that way. I’m going to tell you about a transformation, a minor miracle, and what went into the making of it.
Need.
Before any personal transformation ever takes place, there must be a realization that a true need exists. If you are happy with yourself as you are and where you are headed, you will not succeed at transforming your life. Transformation is forever, that why many diets fail. They are stop gap measures to achieve a certain weight or size clothing all the while clinging in the back of one’s mind to return to the life I love once that is accomplished. Usually the return is with a vengeance.
There can be no going back. Transformation requires a change in the manner of a person’s life. Don’t give things up, substitute them with better things… things that meet the need.
Vision.
You must get a vision of what your transformed life is going to look like and weigh the cost of getting there. What are you going to leave behind forever and is the transformed you worth it? If you hesitate, you are not ready yet for transformation. When you are ready to charge hell with a bucket of ice water to see your vision come to fruition, then you are ready. The vision will be your strength in the hard times (and there will be hard times) and your great joy as it slowly unfolds into reality.
Will.
Will is the battle ax of the one who wants transformation. You must brandish it in the face of every foe. It will cut through the obstacles. Will is fidelity to the vision. It sees the dishonesty and lies of cheating. Espoused to the vision, infidelity is deadly. “Just this once,” is a suicidal delusion that breaks the trust on the vision’s assurance that you can do this.
Persistence.
This is not the same thing as Will. If will is fidelity to the vision, persistence is the thing that picks you up when you fail and starts again. The old lifestyle is a powerful lover of many years. It will do whatsoever it can pull you back… and it will succeed at least once.
Persistence is the Phoenix-like power that lifts you from the ashes of failure and empowers you to fly again. You are never defeated until you quit. Persistence reminds you of that.
Spirit.
I won’t go into my spiel here of how we are all spirit beings. Spirit is a powerful part of who we humans are. During your transformation, you will need to draw on that power. Feed your spirit and your body and soul will not starve. I’d like to tell you how to do this, but unless you determine the how and why to it, you will not find the power you seek.
So, you may be wondering about my transformation, what and how it happened. I will preface this by saying, you must find your own way, after all, it’s your life, your need, and your vision. It was not easy, and I will not tell you anyone can do it. I say not to say I’m better than anyone, but that not everyone will hunger for change as I did. I say that as a nurse whose job it was to teach healthy alternatives and saw them all ignored because the personal cost was too high.
Thirteen months ago, I weighed 260 lbs. I was a diabetic taking 88 units of insulin a day and seeing my 64-year-old body doing more than natural aging. I ate what I wanted with the underpinning thought… “That’s why I’m taking insulin.” I fact that I was a nurse, shows the folly and power of the “old” life. I had high blood pressure requiring three medications to keep me at a high normal range. I took medication for depression. I had two metal rods in my back and a leg that no longer worked all the time. My personal life was a wreck because of these things and a willingness to live for the moment. My father died at 63, and I figured I wasn’t due more than he was.
One day, I looked at my life and for the first time in many years, I wanted not only to live, but to live better and more fully. That’s a pretty vague notion. Something was missing want had to become need.
Suddenly, I had what I considered a God sent inspiration that handed me a real need. Something outside myself, to live my life for. That need went straight to my heart and demanded change and offered a vision of what could be, if I was willing. I was.
I threw away the foods that were anathema to my diabetes. The sugars, and starches, all the grains cereals. I left meats and fats too, especially dairy fats. I began to eat raw foods, then organic raw foods.
I began to walk, a mile at first. I did this not to lose weight… that’s a fallacy. Exercise will not produce weight loss. I did it to improve circulation and strengthen that leg that didn’t want to be reliable. I pushed myself to more every week, leveling off at just over three miles five days a week. I took up some rudimentary Tai Chi and conquered stairs, walking up and down them like a young man again.
Finally, to this I added fasting. When I was in the service, I had a Sargent who would tell us, “If you skip breakfast, you’re living on your liver.” He wasn’t a nutritionist, but he was right. CAT scan said my liver was fatty, a cause of insulin resistance. I had to attack the fat that filled my liver and fasting was the answer. I fasted a day sometimes two at a time, but I needed a kick start that brought results I could see to inspire me. I fasted for a week and felt great doing it. The results were more than I hoped for.
In less than three months, I weighed 195, took no medicine except an occasional reduced dose of insulin… usually because I overindulged or ate something I shouldn’t have eaten. This morning I weighed 179 pounds. My size 40 pants that I was straining to get into are now size 34. I still, have to have them hemmed because none of this made me taller. In fact, I have given away all the clothes I wore a year ago.
Did I falter. Damn right I did. I’m an emotional eater. I still do it, but now I do it a little better. I’m still not above giving in to it. The difference is I am learning how to catch myself and correct course to hold to my new life.
I prayed, I meditated, I worked, and I was encouraged along the way. I need every one of those things every step of the way. I had one other thing, a passion for writing that was a means of living and purpose for living.
I am not boasting. On my own I could not have done it, moreover, would not have even tried. So, there is no glory in me saying, “Look what I did.” It didn’t happen like that. I am here to testify not to what can happen, but what does happen with an application to personal transformation. I am on the cusp of realizing the last vision goal.
Was it worth it? Absolutely. The only thing I would do differently would be to start twenty years earlier. By the same token, it is never too late to start. Starting is important, however, not as important as finishing.
Effect a minor miracle. It can be done, and you can do it. I have been purposely vague here about a good many things. I did this not in an attempt to hide a secret method or to protect the innocent, bit because this is a highly individual process. What worked for me may not work for someone else. I’m not vegan, vegetarian, keto, paleo or any other diet. I just try to watch what I eat and to eat nothing processed, even that is situational. I’m very much a missionary eater, eating whatever is set before me with thanksgiving.
I will take a shot her to help a friend. If you want advice about nutrition, ask me and I will share my source… with their permission. If you’re a man with diabetes and want to save your life, email me, jacklafountain0084@gmail.com
Maranatha
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