Get healthy...or else.

If I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it a trillion times: “God works in mysterious ways.” It’s funny because in December, I was fully aware of my poor eating habits – partly a green light I’d given myself for the holiday season, partly because we didn’t have a lot of money to buy what I would eat when I’m focused on healthier fare. I was exercising, probably my subconscious’ way of keeping the scale from exploding when resolution time rolled around, but I knew I wasn’t doing what I needed to be healthy.

For me healthy means I feel good, I have energy to do what I want and need to do, I’m fitting my clothes, and possibly even losing weight. The latter is not a necessary symptom of health, in my opinion, but it never hurts!

January 2009, rolled around and I was not feeling it. I was sluggish, exhausted, fatigued, chubby, and even a bit depressed. December’s free for all was surely to blame. I didn’t even have energy to exercise so I knew that was a red flag to get it together or else. Or else I’d gain more and more weight. Or else I wouldn’t have the energy to do anything good for me or otherwise. Or else I could kiss the days of playing with the kids in the yard goodbye because good health cannot be taken for granted. It cannot be abused and it will not be mine if I don’t get it together.

That same month I started having severe pain in the same area I’ve had it before: in my right ovary. This pain was debilitating and all I could do was cry, complain and stay close to my heating pad. The ovarian cyst spotted in a recent ultrasound was back with a vengeance or maybe it had grown because this sucker ached, throbbed.

Because I’m relatively pro-active about my health I decided to find a holistic healing book at the library. I found a fantastic resource, “Linda Page’s Healthy Healing”, and tore through that book with the same vengeance the cyst displayed. There was information I could share with everyone from my best friend to my mom to Jay and Nas. This book is truly a holistic health bible.

It’s been only a week since the severe pain has subsided, but I have an arsenal of holistic weapons to tackle this cyst. I don’t expect instant results but I do expect much less pain this month. I also expect most of the symptoms of poor health I struggle with to decrease and, in time, vanish. Deficiencies in iron, calcium, and green foods will no longer steal my energy and fervor for life. I started righting that wrong in early February and I know I’ll feel better sooner than later.

Health is a blessing, any nurse will tell you. But this January I heard God tell me to get healthy or else. And with an insane fear of cancer of any kind and consistent prayer to be here to watch my kids grow up and have their own families, I took heed to God’s word. This is not to say I’ll never fall ill, avoid cancer or live to see my grandchildren – but it is to say that when God tells you to do something, you do it. I’m making the effort and I know He’ll fill in the gaps.