Praise God! The test results have come back negative! I do not have Cushing’s disease or any other disease! Oh, it feels so good to not worry about that any more. If a person wants to see how much they trust God, they just need to go through something like this. It really tests your faith. I worried – gave it to God, – took the worry back – gave it to God. And He patiently blessed me.

The doctors have decided that this hump on my back is just a ‘fatty tumor’ and it needs to be surgically removed. It keeps growing and is now 6 inches long from shoulder to shoulder and 4 inches wide down my back. It will be ‘out-patient’ surgery, but the surgeon will admit me to the hospital if there is even the slightest concern. The date of the surgery is February 10th and as always, your prayers on that day will help me get through it.

The funny thing is that when each of my 3 doctors saw my hump, they all said exactly the same thing – “What did you do?” Well, since it is located on my back, there isn’t anything I could have done to myself.

Until the surgery, I thought I would work out every single day. For one thing, it will be great for the nerves. Alas, I have only been on the treadmill once (at home). Where is my self-discipline? Why am I not at the gym I love so much? Shouldn’t I have cabin fever or something to get me out of the house? I will do my best to get out tomorrow so I can write that I have done some exercise. If I write it I had better do it or have a good excuse why I didn’t. I have to be true to myself and I don’t want to disappoint anyone reading this blog.

I have not totally wasted this time. I have listened to Matthew Kelly’s ‘Being-The-Best-Version-of-Yourself’ CD and read ‘Rediscover Catholicism’. I highly recommend both of these to everyone. They are fairly inexpensive and you can find them at www.matthewkelly.org. There are LOTS of great books to help you discover God’s purpose for your life and to motivate you to be your best for God. If you like what Mr. Kelly writes and records, perhaps you can ask your pastor to purchase a large quantity for the parish so the price will be more affordable for everyone.

In the meantime, I have developed some good habits (Mr. Kelly suggests developing 5 good habits a year). One of his suggestions is to begin reading the Bible. Really reading it. I did some research and found the daily Mass readings on the web at http://www.easterbrooks.com/personal/calendar/weekly. When you get to this website, you can sign up for the daily Mass readings to be sent to your email address every day.

I also receive “Our Daily Bread” booklet in the mail, which has a story with a moral for each day and a note on the side stating the chapter to read to get through the entire Bible in one year.

Presently I am reading Leviticus. This Old Testament book describes how to offer up holocausts and sin offerings to Yahweh. God patiently describes each step to Moses, from how to cut the animal to how to place the meat on the altar for the sacrifice. It is really interesting how God taught the Israelites how to cook the food and which food they must not eat (which would not be good for them). I confess that when I first read the passages, it sounded just like a Bar-B-Queue and maybe that is where we first learned to cook meat over fire! God also said that the aroma of the meat offerings is pleasing to Him!

Another habit I have developed is counting calories. I have created an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of every single thing I eat, and how many calories it contains. [An ordinary notebook will do just as well].

Since my diet consists of the same thing for breakfast and lunch each day, all I have to do is cut and paste the information into the new day. I found a web site for counting calories at: http://caloriecount.about.com

I’ve included my daily Bible readings in the worksheet. I type the chapter and verse and then write something short next to the reading to make sure I understand what I’ve read. When I don’t understand it, I just copy and paste the most important part of the reading on to the worksheet. When I start my Bible Study at church, I will have my questions ready.

There are so many other habits I want to develop, but I want to concentrate on these two. It is no accident that I picked ones that help the body and the soul. To me, they form the basis of all the other habits.

The first one is helping me lose weight. The second one is making me think about God in a whole new way. While reading the Bible I see examples that God has always been with us. For example, while the Israelites were wandering in the desert, they had to have a cloud (God) to lead them every day for 40 years – I think it would be great to have that cloud in front of us during these turbulent times too. On second thought, I see we DO have God in front of us every day – in the form of the Blessed Sacrament in the tabernacles of our churches or in the monstrance at Eucharistic Adoration. We just need to take time to go visit Him there. He will lead us too if we ask.