My sample of an idea with students, Marcia Carole
Last night, (dark, rainy) after leaving a meeting, I headed to the grocery store to buy more broccoli, blueberries, kale, celery, and other green and red/purple food. With each expensive, organic item I threw in my small cart, I got more and more frustrated, until a full on pity party was upon me. A pity party is like hanging out with a bad guest list of people who enjoy wounding others, only my guests were only in my head! You know the types. Scoundrels, pirates and thieves!
The first guest began with “All this organic food is not helping one bit.” Another whispered, “Your cancer is still there, nothing has changed. Eating Kale is ridiculous.” A third almost shouted, “Look, look at that glazed donut. It’s delicious, you can’t have it, and you still have cancer. Hahaha.” The whole group of pity party goers wrapped up the party with mentioning more I was missing out on by having cancer. What a bunch. After almost bringing me to tears by the spinach section (the store had swapped out my organic spinach with some you can’t fool me Dole Natural, yeah, right, spinach), I weakly asked the party-goers to GO.
And they did. Finally. Because, I think, greater is the Holy Spirit in me than any nasty voices in or outside my head.
Note to self – it is important for all of us to know that those fighting cancer have pity parties once in a while, even in the middle of the grocery store. So, next time you go food shopping, and you’d like to help break up said party, (we can ALL pity ourselves at times!) give a smile to someone who seems sad. You just might be a big encouragement to someone, and those nasty guests might go home more quickly.
What’s interesting is, I had this pity party after a really good day listening to other women’s stories, sharing 3 collaged books with the leader for my next trip, and working on the above piece of art. Which goes to show, you never quite know when those pity party guests might bust through your door. Next time, I hope to push them right back out much more quickly with an “Oh PLEASE, don’t even start.”
