This morning, I felt confident about my challenge for the day. To go a full day eating nothing but one bowl of rice. (To see why, please read yesterday’s blog post A Lesson In Uncle Ben’s). Now that the day is over, I wish I could say that I rose to the challenge, graciously enduring this uncomfortable experience, but all I can say is this…
It sucked.
The morning was not too bad. I dropped my daughter at school, then came home and crawled back into bed so I could sleep away some more of the day. When I awoke for the second time, I was definitely feeling more hungry. So I distracted myself with my computer. I googled hunger, and read many websites about the children in this world who face it every day, to remind myself why I was doing this.
By afternoon, I was starving, and so looking forward to the one bowl of rice I was allowing myself. The longest 20 minutes of the day was waiting for the rice to cook. By this time, I felt tired, I had a headache, and as my kids predicted, I was cranky. I was not their favorite person by the end of the day, and it probably didn’t help that I responded to their every statement with “at least you ate today”.
By evening, all I could think about was crawling into bed and praying for morning to come so I could eat a hearty breakfast. And now that it is night time, and I am sitting in my bed typing this entry, I think back in disbelief to the thought that I was going to give up chocolate for Lent, as if that was some sort of great sacrifice. I think of all the times I tossed out perfectly good leftovers, or let food go bad in my fridge because of poor planning. Tossing it away thinking that there’s plenty more where that came from.
But the most sobering thought of all as I think of that one bowl of rice is this…even my dogs ate twice.
your intentions were good ones, admire you for that. We fasted one day (morning to the next morning) the Saturday before the last presidential election. I know a lot of churches made it a day of fasting and prayer. It was the first time I had ever fasted. I tried to remember how Jesus said don't let people know when you are fasting, but your heavenly father knows (can't remember the specific reference right now). We did make it through the whole day, but I haven't fasted since......
ReplyDeletebetty
Good luck with the rice! I totally understand how it is... difficult. You had asked me where the rest of my posts were during my week of rice eating, and here it is:
ReplyDeletehttp://moweezle.wordpress.com/2010/08/12/what-a-week/
Have a great week!
Maureen
Betty, it was interesting how food became the sole focus of my day. Nothing else seemed to matter. It put into great perspective some of the things I complain about. Also, the whole time, I knew I had an abundance of food waiting for me the next day and still it was very, very difficult.
ReplyDeleteMoweezie, thanks! I will definitely check out your link :)