What I Learned From A Year of Not Dating

Can you believe it’s already been a year? I made a decision to purposely not date for a year. Here is the short version of the blessings and heart lessons I learned.

Put GOD first, regardless of my status.
“And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.”
Deuteronomy 6:5

Deal with the old wounds.
“Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled”
Hebrews 12:15

Deal with the anger.
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”
Galatians 5:22-23

Deal with childhood memories.
“Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ.”
Philippians 3:13-14

Confront the sin that may have formed into bad habits.
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”
Romans 12:1-2

Love God more.
“God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” John 4:24

Keep reading His Word and learn what it means.
“For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness.”
Colossians 1:9-11

Start with the Gospel. With everything.
“And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.” Colossians 1:17

Invest in eternity.
“Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Matthew 18:18

Single or otherwise – embrace God’s best.
“I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.”
Philippians 4:12

God is still speaking to my heart on different areas of growth that I know He wants me to tend to before I enter a sacrificial relationship. I am so thankful that He has walked with me through those greyer moments, when I had to face truths about myself that I didn’t particularly want to deal with. I praise the Lord that He still covered me with His grace, forgave me for my sins and renewed my heart so I can serve Him. I am deeply thankful that He showed me I could change.

Blessings,
Mahal

And the things you always meant to do

I glanced over the list of 200 things I still want to do. It included places to visit, international travel, books to read, martial arts, surfing, growing garden vegetables and knitting.

Approaching in the calendar was another routine doctor’s appointment. I felt a shoulder-wide cloud of sadness. The list was a reminder of so much life still unlived. Why had I put off these things? What was I waiting for?

I knew the almost grown-up things I told myself, as I kept moving from city to city, managing crisis after crisis, break-up after new romance. I thought I was being responsible by gearing up for the “until” and peering across the wilderness of my maturity for the “when-I’m-ready.”

But then the diagnosis and biopsies, MRI’s and chemo. What was the point of putting it off? Where was my “until?”

A humbling lesson in recovery was that conditions will never be just right. For a planner like me, the timing will never be exact. The beauty of getting it done is that the joy is still bursting through the circumstances that were always a little “off.”

What would your list of 200 things look like? Are you waiting, wanting and wishing? If there were one thing on that list that you could do/visit or learn within the next 30 days, what would it be? In what area of your life is it still “unlived?”

Blessings,
Mahal

 

Rushing Back to Normal

If I could pick out my biggest mistake during recovery, it’s rushing back to what I thought was normal.

Rushing back to my familiar routines took my focus off the process of healing. It distracted my attention from taking in the victories of the day. I ended up feverishly working toward this standard that wasn’t relevant, helpful or healthy. It’s similar to watching a mouse in a maze, but the mouse made the maze for himself. It sounds odd, but I’ve observed that we all have this tendency when we’re managing change, even if the change is GOOD for us.

What I would’ve done differently:

1. Scrap what I thought was normal. I tried so hard to do all the things I was doing before surgery and treatment. I completely missed the mark. My job was to recover, not retreat, revisit or regress. Recovery takes work. It pulls out things about us that we don’t normally tap into. The luxuries are gone. The energy isn’t the same. That’s actually the beauty of it. Re-purpose recovery to CREATE something functional, purposeful and aligned with this season in your life. Recovery means redefining. In some cases, we will have to be our own emotional pioneers.

2. Celebrate the daily victories. No wonderment from winning the day is too small. Everything counts. Recovery forces us to view life at almost millisecond speed, honing in on every quirk and balance. We need a really keen eye for joy, a tuned ear for contentment, a clean heart for change.

3. Leave the other stuff behind. What once was, was. Reminiscing on how we used to do things and what we used to have, has its purpose. But be careful that we aren’t dwelling and longing for something that will choke our chances of contribution in the present time. What I’ve said to people is to put those memories in a mental drawer and open it when it helps you feel WELL, not worthless.

I had a boss who took over our department after an 8-month job search from being laid off from a large international insurance company. She seemed like a nice lady, but every time we would bring up ideas, she would refer back to her old job. “Back at so-and-so, we used to…” Her memories became this wall and it was challenging to appreciate her expertise.

When friends or family would see me during recovery, one of their first questions was, “Are you back to normal?” Can’t knock ’em. That’s their only gauge of wellness. “The new normal is good,” I would say. And smile really big so they believe me. 🙂

But that’s the truth. And that’s what I would encourage you to hold on to. Change and recovery gives us a unique license to explore and create new standards of success in our lives that we would not have, if it were not for these situations. We don’t have to go “back to normal.” It’s already here.

Blessings,

Mahal

I hate victim language, including my own.

I am so used to having limitations that I have conditioned people around me to keep treating me like I’m still in treatment. Now it’s time to re-train my own expression and set new examples of wellness language. Rewiring the language of deficiency is a new challenge.

Here are my own habitual statements. I’m working on changing the way I express them to breathe positive reinforcement and forward-looking verbiage. All this time, the one holding me back is me.

im overweight→ i like working on getting in shape.

i dont have a clean house → i like getting to know my space again.

i wont have enough money → i like the challenge of working on a budget.

im single → im single. 🙂  [This is fine the way it is].

Blessings,

Mahal

One Year Off Facebook – Best Year of My Life

Hello Healing Partners!

I enjoyed one year staying OFF Facebook. So why in the world would I get back on this site? Here are a few lessons I learned.

1. If we want to change the conversation, we need to participate. Contribute. People will talk about the same things unless we give and share something different.

2. Go where people are talking and connecting. We don’t do telephone calls anymore. I learned not to fight the technology, but use it in a great way to leverage how to get the message out to a lot of people at one time. Uh, kinda like this blog! 🙂

3. Be brave enough to share your story. I probably would’ve been fine burying the cancer journey and all its difficulties. But God showed me that there are too many people who are healing from something. I learned what to apply in my life by watching other people heal. Maybe your story will help someone, too.

The healing journey shows that we can approach familiar things differently. Facebook is how most of my family communicates. Instead of dreading the barrage of online stickers or oddly-posed selfies, it was time for me to engage in the conversations and start contributing with messages that show the love of God.

I’ll be guilty of the occasional food foto and even a two-sentence rant about standing in line for way too long (you know, things that don’t really matter). But my prayer is that those are limited. Instead, could you pray that I use social media to show the powerful and purposeful, life-changing love of God to others?

The one year off Facebook might seem like the best year of my life, but there is so much more to come.

What about you? How do you benefit from your online activity? (other than having a great time here on my blog? Okay, I’m kidding). How has online content influenced you in your own decisions? Do you regularly learn new things online?

“Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.” Psalm 19:14

Blessings,

Mahal