Are you sure, sweetheart, that you want to be well?
-- ‘Minnie Ransom’ from Toni Cade Bambara’s “The Salt Eaters”

This wilderness you’re going through right now is one of the hardest you’ve ever had to suffer. It’s long and it has layers as deep and thick as an evergreen forest. Granted, you have had other wilderness experiences – some complicated, others quick and relatively simple. You’ve traveled through many storms; you’ve made it through each of them, and, for the most part, you’ve remained unscathed and still of sound mind and body. But this one? Seems you’ve been struggling with this one your entire life. It won’t go away; it stays even when the other storms pass. Oh, how you want to be free from its strains, but, geez, this feels like it’s got a grip for life.

So, do you just live with it? Do you just accept that this is a battle you’ll always have to contend with and manage?

“Are you sure, sweetheart, that you want to be well?”

If you are in fact looking for wellness, healing, and freedom from the stuff that keeps you from, being, believing, and all the other –ings of a productive life, first, consider how long you’ve been living with your stuff. It’s been there so long, it’s like a part of you; an appendage that you feed and wash just as you do the body God gave you. Some of the stuff is so attached that you can’t even discern which part is you and which is simply excess weight that makes you feel bloated and out of control. You’ve accepted the stuff as who you are for so long, you either deny it really is stuff or you’ve learned how to dress it up and redirect it as mere character shortcomings or awkward and complex idiosyncrasies. The real truth of the matter is something just ain’t right about how you’re processing what’s going on in you and in your life. Without giving the stuff that cripples you a correct diagnosis, you’re simply choosing to live with dead limbs. What’s the use in that?

If you’re ready to be well, you must undergo major surgery, plastic surgery, or weight loss. If major surgery is the order, seek professional psychological assistance. This kind of operation necessitates that you rearrange most every single thing in your life, particularly your thought patterns, and, subsequently, your attitudes and behaviors. Major surgery requires that you spend a significant amount of time and energy recalling old, hurtful, secret, and hidden memories so that you can work loose the ties that bind them to you. Most importantly, major surgery demands that you stay in a prostrate position while God reaches in and moves through your body and mind to get you as close to the original work of art He first created.

If it’s plastic surgery you need, consider reconstructive, or that which corrects the negative and depressing effects your stuff has left behind. Be prepared to take grafts from others and other places and have them sutured to you in order to own a fresher perspective and outlook. It will probably be necessary to receive on-going treatments or boosters, so be sure to keep your Bible and your friends close at hand.

If it’s a weight loss program you need, by all means, employ the best to get the stuff off of you. You’ll need an exercise program that includes running to keep your Self away from what’s not good and ingesting only a diet healthy in self-love and positive regard. Don’t cheat and just take a pill to make the stuff go away. Pills run out. They also leave side effects that will create you another wilderness experience. And, if you need a personal trainer, you have ready access to the best at any hour of the day or night. Call on Him and He’ll work your stuff off with you.

Maybe you must undergo all of the above. If so, do so. It’s a guarantee you won’t be alone. I’ll meet you there.

Sadiqqa © 2007