It's Guest Blogger Day and today's guest is Jill Baughan, an author and speaker who helps people unleash the power of play in their lives. Jill was born in Bluffton, Indiana, where she learned to laugh and throw up at the same time while riding the Tilt-A-Whirl at the annual Bluffton Street Fair!
Jill is no stranger to painful experiences, such as the sudden death of her father when she was ten, and a long battle with infertility as an adult. But even though the challenges of life have changed her, her innate wildness remains unshaken. "Though there are times when part of me mourns what's lost, sighs at what's here and trembles a bit at what's to come," she says, "I still want to hop onto a Harley, swing like Tarzan from a vine, and toilet paper somebody's house." (Jill sounds like my kind of girl!)
Jill's latest book, Born To Be Wild: Rediscover the Freedom of Fun, helps men and women unleash the power of play in their own lives. (I've read her book, and let me tell you, it was like reading my life!) Her message gives us a new ability to:
- fit more fun into our days
- restore adventurous dreams we may have postponed
- multiply joy by sharing our fun with others
- use moments of fun to heal in times of grief and loss
- renew our relationships with God by using fun as an act of worship
Jill says that until she can actually make a living by playing around, she will continue to be an adjunct English instructor at Virginia Commonwealth University. She also serves on the worship ministry team at Cool Spring Baptist Church. Jill and her husband, Ben, live in Mechanicsville, Virginia, just outside of Richmond. Be sure to check out Jill's website.
So readers, sit back, grab a Yoo-Hoo and a Blow-Pop and enjoy a few fun-filled minutes with Jill.
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Food Fight? by Jill Baughan
How's your relationship with food these days?
If you're fighting with it, I invite you to make up, play nice, and enjoy what it has to offer: immediate pleasure, yes, but also an approach to life that can add a lot more fun to your days.
I myself understand the battle, though, since my own started the summer of my nineteenth year. That was going to be the summer, I decided, when I would finally lose weight.
Although I could have joined a weight loss group, or any one of a number of other reasonable ways, of course, I wouldn't choose that path. For pity's sake, why be reasonable when you could be radical and stupid? So I counted calories, setting my daily limit at 900. In a couple of months, I had lost twenty pounds. And a significant portion of my mind with it.
Before school started, I was so desperate to be non-deprived, I actually looked with lust at a few stewed prunes my mom was cooking on the stove-and before I knew it, I was frantically retrieving every prune in the house, throwing them in a pot of heated water. Indeed, I thought they were magnificent, which is very sad. Even as I write this, I think about how sick it is to finally bust out of a diet on something like stewed prunes. But before my whole food orgy was over, I had eaten 26 of them.
Yes, that's right. Twenty-six stewed prunes.
Do I need explain why I had to call in "sick" the next day?
Shortly after that, it was thirty-two chocolate chip cookies.
And one time, the Reese's Peanut Butter Cups that were in the freezer called my name. I ate 125 of them in five days. That would be about twenty-five a day for five days in a row. Obviously God, in a merciful act of grace, had given me an asbestos stomach.
Maybe you've found yourself in a similar place-stuck in a deprivation mindset that wouldn't let you go, bouncing between eating too much "Whatever" with a big scoop of guilt on top, and stoically sticking to a "plan" where you wake up every morning and your first cranky thought is, "What can't I eat today?"
I mean, really, shouldn't we be having a little more fun with our food?
Geneen Roth, a teacher, speaker and writer on emotional eating, says "Yes!" when she admits that, "I can't remember going without chocolate for more than 24 hours. [Preach on, sister!] Chocolate makes me happy to be alive. [Yes, indeed!] Every day, after lunch, I have one piece of 77 percent bittersweet chocolate. One piece, that's all. One piece fills the mouth, saturates the taste buds, evokes heaven on earth."
And couldn't we all use a little of that?
Then she suggests a new way to eat (read: have fun with!) foods you love: "Consider taking one piece. One bite. One chunk. Most of the time we are so busy wanting the next thing, the piece that we don't have, that we don't allow ourselves to enjoy the one that's in our mouth. When we are busy focusing on what we don't have, we don't pay attention to what we do have."
Good advice for eating. Good advice, also, for life.
What has God put in front of you, right now, to fill your spirit, saturate your senses and evoke heaven on earth?
Is it a special relationship with a friend or loved one? If so, take a moment today to phone, email or (wow, who does this?) speak a little affirmation into their busyness…or loneliness.
Is it two legs that can take you from Point A to Point B? Then take a walk outside-even a short one-and enjoy the fresh air and freedom.
Is it something goofy that makes you laugh? The smell of soap in your shower? The softness of your dog's fur? A song that lifts you out of the dumps? A teeny tiny sign of Spring in your yard? Or, yes, even a piece of chocolate that has somehow suddenly, miraculously, appeared within reach of your hand?
Then go on. Enjoy-not only your food…but also the one bite, the one chunk of life that God is offering you today.
Vonda here: Thank you for your fun piece, Jill. I think I'll go grab a Hershey's Kiss and…fill my spirit, saturate my senses and evoke heaven on earth.
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Another Conference to Add to the List–This One on the West Coast
I just learned of another writer's conference coming up soon. The Orange County Christian Writers Conference will be held May 1 in Irvine, CA. There are two contests (one for publication), but you'll have to hurry, the deadline is this Thursday, April 1.
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The Introductory Price for the Writing for Kids Package Will End This Weekend!
If you've been putting off ordering the special writing-for-kids package, now is the time. The introductory price will expire April 3, but this week you can get TWO downloadable classes and handouts–Teaching Biblical Truth through Secular Fiction and Write a Novel Children Will Love–for only $22.43, a savings of $7.47!
And be sure to check out the other classes, How to Have Magazine Editors Calling YOU! and Opportunities for Christian Writers. You can learn to write in the comfort of your own home!
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And the winners are…
…Marsha Fisher and Cindy Jones! That's right, Kathy Howard has graciously decided to award two books! Since Marsha was the first name drawn, she'll get her choice and Cindy will get the other one. So girls, just send me your mailing addresses (and Marsha, be sure to let me know which book you want) and they'll be on their way.
Thank you again, Kathy, for telling us about your journey and your much needed books, and for donating two books to our readers. It has been a joy to get to know you. I pray God's blessing on all your upcoming projects!
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And this week, as we reflect on the message of the cross, let's remember the words of John, spoken of the One Who left the glory of heaven and came to live among us, a sinless Man who died and arose…all in the name of love:
This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 1 John 4:9-10
I pray God's blessing on the work of your hands and your hearts,
Vonda
(Cross photo courtesy of ChristianPhotos.net)
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