In spite of the fact that many of us are not fasting for health reasons, we're still getting the tests
we would normally get during the Fast . (does that make any sense to anybody?) When I first
became a Baha'i, I hated fasting for mostly physical reasons. Eventually I got to the point of tolerating it. Then I grew old enough to LOVE it;o) But, the Fast always meant tests and difficulties.

Some of the tests seemed absolutely horrendous but we always got through them--much to our surprise.  Then about week or so after Naw Ruz, something wonderful would happen that was totally out of the blue. I always considered this my little reward from God for making it through the Fast;o)

So here we all are in the middle of the Fast and we're all having some kinds of tests.  Here are the two things that happened to me this weekend that I consider "acts of God."

1.  As most of you know our house came through Hurricane Katrina technically unharmed our neighbors had trees fall on their homes or fly in them.  Our house was "nicked" on the back corner by a tree. The corner was damaged but not enough to make a claim on the house insurance or get my husband to fix. So last year (three years later) I found I found someone to fix the roof and the corner of the house.

Friday night the rest of the same %$#@! tree fell on the same corner of the house and did the exact same damage AGAIN!  I don't even want to think how long it will take before my husband stops telling me he'll fix it and I'll get someone to do it AGAIN.

2.  My hands have been giving me a lot of physical pain over the past few years. I take calcium which helps with the pain, and sometimes I put Aspercreme on them. Well, Friday night I put some Tiger Balm which has helped with other aches and pains I have.  I put the Tiger Balm on my hands and forearms (because those are the muscles that support the fingers). Then I went to bed. When I woke at 5:30am for an early potty run, I felt like I was walking on a ship in a storm and couldn't make it to the foot of the bed before I fell over onto the bed. I picked myself up and hung on to the wall to get to the bathroom. When I woke at 8:30am to get up, I couldn't take two steps without literally falling onto the bed because I was even dizzier. Eventually I made it. Then, I thought I'd go back to bed which wasn't difficult to get to now except I hadt chills. This was the second clue that something was wrong with me. I phoned my son (who was sleeping in his bedroom  next door) with my cell phone and kept calling him until he answered his phone. (aren't cell phones wonderful. Now I don't have to yell for my children, I just keep ringing them until they answer their phones;o)

My son woke up and got me my meds, some food, and an extra heavy comforter because I was having chills.  I stayed in bed until around 1pm when I had to make another potty run. Phoned my son again.  Again I felt pretty good after this. So I had him bring a chair for me to sit in while he massaged my neck (he's a professional massage therapist and my neck had been killing me) and a small fan (if I can keep cool I won't get nausous for some reason). So there we are in the bathroom, fan blowing on me, my personal massage therapist working on my neck, and now the toilet started making  funny noises. (I think things get slow in the Abha kingdom and they want a good comedy show so they tune into my life to see what would happen if strange, weird things are done to me;o)

Let's see, where was I, oh,  yes, the fan is blowing directly on me as I sit in a kitchen chair next to the toilet that is backing up while my son massages my neck. I've been around long enough to know the sound a toilet makes just before it overflows its rim. I yell at my son to grab the plunger and start plunging as though his life depends on it. He is a good son and has been well trained by his mother for just such events (plus this is not the first, second, or tenth time he has encountered this kind of  toilet problem). He grabs the heavy duty plunger and plunges the toilet to "good health." Then back to my neck and my sense of balance problems. 

We go through several potential causes for my ills including but not limited to:  maybe its the flu or a bacterial infection in my sinuses and ustation (sp?) tubes, brain tumor (these are the symptoms my mother had before her death). BUT the only thing different I did the night before was put Tiger Balm on my hands and arms.  We also know that I have a strange body that medical science has yet to figure out. Our conclusion is all these symptoms must be a reaction to the Tiger Balm, inhaling the methyl and camphor all night while sleeping, and everything inbetween. I take a Benedryl pill for the allergic reaction I'm having (the extreme dizziness) and an ibrophen for the stiffness in my neck.  He walks me into the den to the recliner where I stay for the rest of the afternoon watching tv and snoozing. By the evening I'm back to normal--almost. 

It's the Fast  (whether I actually fast or not) and during the Fast I know I will have tests. That's the way it's always been. I have hope that since God is giving me tests, there'll be a little reward at the end of it;o) That's the way the Fast works with me.

We're given the Fast as a way to accelerate our spiritual development a bit, we fast, we pray a little more, we have some extra tests designed just for us;o) We get through the Fast, our tests, and then something nice/ a little extra comes our way. Look for it after Naw Ruz, yes, you will have to  look, but it will be there.