A couple of weeks ago, I finally lost my unicorn status. In case you don’t know, unicorn status is held by those people on this planet that have never had, as far as they know, covid. Well, I finally got it. Nothing bad, just 1 day of feeling meh, and then mostly just some congestion. It did last over a week, which was inconvenient, but the most annoying thing was I had to miss Mass for 2 weekends! I get cranky if I don’t spend time in the presence of the Lord at least once a week.

So, I got really behind on my writing, hence my lack of blog posts, so I do owe you 9 more saintly women. But, I also wanted to share what I learned from being sick.

First, we really need to take our health seriously. God has given us this amazing body we all have, and all we do is fill it with junk food, sit in front of screens most of our waking hours, and hide inside away from sunshine and clean air. We need to do better. I’m not talking about becoming beauty queens, but I am saying that we should try to go for more walks, eat a couple of more fruits and vegetables, drink more water, you know, do healthy stuff.

Second, why are we more worried about missing work then missing sleep? When we get sick, we really need to take the time to rest as much as possible. Sleeping is a great time for the body to repair itself, but most of us don’t get a decent amount of it. But do we make sure that we work, even though we don’t feel 100%. Of course, if all you have is a cold, or allergies, or a headache, of course you don’t need to skip work, but we are so used to working, that most of us don’t stop. If God rested on the 7th day, shouldn’t we, mere mortals do the same?

And lastly, why are we not using our faith to stay healthy? We go to God and ask Mary and the Saints for prayers when we are seriously sick with cancer, or need surgery, or have something really bad happen to us. But there’s so many things that will bring us closer to God and keep us healthy at the same time, like prayer, Bible study, the Rosary, and fasting.

Prior to 11/21/1964, people use to fast for Communion from midnight until they went to church. There’s a ton of studies that show how intermittent fasting is good for health, so doing it once a week is a good way to start. Now, if you have health issues, don’t do this without checking with your doctor. Let’s be smart.

When we pray the Rosary, we meditate on the life of Christ. Meditation reduces stress, inflammation, pain, and anxiety. As Catholics, we can do all of that and grow closer to God! And we can accomplish the same from daily prayer and reading the Bible.

So, let’s start taking better care of ourselves by growing closer to God.