My husband checked out a book for me the other day from the
local library. It was “The Success Principles,” by Jack Canfield,
the co-creator of “Chicken Soup for the Soul.”
Being the great guy my husband is, I believe he thought the book
would help me achieve some of my lifelong goals. As a
stay-at-home-mom, however, I am always a bit suspicious about wise
men bearing gifts.
I hope he didn’t have any ulterior motives like me becoming more
successful, or even mediocre, at house cleaning. Because from what
I’ve read of the book, that’s never going to happen. One step
toward success is to be 100 percent responsible for your dreams and
actions. I’m 100 percent sure I hate scrubbing toilets and have no
desire to improve or enhance that vision.
Along that 100 percent line, the author includes success in
relationships and health. He says if someone you have a
relationship with is getting in the way of your success, it may be
time to end the relationship. If my husband ever decides to read
this book, I may be out on the street. Or, as the book suggests, he
could think out of the box and find other ways to achieve some of
his goals: i.e., clean the toilet himself, assign that as one of
the kid’s chores, or hire a housekeeper.
It was the idea that we might be 100 percent responsible for our
health that caught my eye. I have had a pain for almost three
years. It’s a very real pain in my leg, not the allegorical pain in
the neck we all suffer from time to time. I have gone to doctors,
physical therapists, homeopaths, hypnotists, chiropractors, and you
name it. No one has been able to figure out the cause. Someone
directed me to a little book by Louise L. Hay called, “You Can Heal
Your Life.”
The premise of the book would be laughable if it wasn’t so
irritatingly accurate. Irritated with someone close? Yes, I have a
sinus infection. Slipped disc causing pain again? Sure enough, I’m
feeling totally unsupported. Feeling afraid of the future, not
wanting to move? Dang, the leg’s killing me.
I’m a firm believer that if a problem has manifested itself in a
health issue, I’ve let it go too long. So I confronted the whole
leg issue and agreed with both books. I’m afraid and I’m 100
percent responsible for it. Now here’s the hard part. Knowing
you’re afraid and telling yourself not to be afraid are two
different things. Since I have yet to discover how to overcome my
fear, I decided to work on an easier health issue.
The idea came to me as I was sitting through “Menopause,” – the
musical, not the life cycle. I went to the outrageous comedy last
weekend with nine other women. The only menopausal symptoms I had
ever heard of were hot flashes, so I was wondering how someone
could write a 90-minute show on just that. Well, to say I didn’t
identify with the characters would be a lie. I never laughed so
hard in my life, because I, too, can’t remember what I went
downstairs to get. I, too, have a brain fart in the middle of a
conversation and am unable to find the right words to finish the
sentence. I, too, would find it more efficient to rub a piece of
chocolate directly on my hips instead of waiting for the whole
metabolic process to land it there for me.
If I am 100 percent responsible for my health, I thought, then
maybe there is something I can think of to relieve these symptoms.
Guess what? Memory loss and hot flashes weren’t even listed in the
book, but menopause was. Now here’s my line of thinking: Memory
loss is not listed because how are you going to think yourself out
of something that’s not there? Hot flashes aren’t listed because
the author of the book is a woman and she hasn’t been able to find
an affirmation big enough to douse that fire. Being overweight is a
form of protecting oneself … from memory loss and hot
flashes.
Then it dawned on me: Unless I’m somehow blessed like Sarah from
the Bible who had Isaac at the age of 90, there’s no way I’m going
to think myself out of the change. And quite frankly, I can’t
imagine wanting a child at 90. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t find it
quite as funny as Sarah did.
I think what God was telling Sarah and what both Hay’s and
Canfield’s books were telling me are similar. Nothing is too hard
or impossible with the help of God and a good attitude.
Truthfully, I’m never going to say a prayer over my
toilet.
Karen Kendig is a native
Colorado goober.