For those that aren't familiar with Mindbloom it is a new online life game. It's still in its beta stage from what I understand and if you look them up on Facebook there are less than 3000 playing compared to the millions playing the ever famous Farmville, Cityville and Words with Friends game apps.
Borrowing the words from their home page, "Mindbloom: Growing the life you want! A fun, simple and effective way to improve your quality of life. Decide what's important. Discover what motivates you. Take meaningful action."
My sister, Debbie, first shared Mindbloom in an email with me. Her insurance company, Aetna had sent her information about it. That in itself intrigued me!! I quickly checked it out, created an account and began the task at hand. Growing my own tree.
For a couple of days my tree sat in an open field with my sisters tree. Alone, just the two of us. I checked out some of the actions on relationships, finances, career, spirituality, health and lifestyle. After some time playing around with all the buttons I realized I could upload my favorite songs, a few pictures and in doing so I created my very own "Inspirational Player."
What's an Inspirational Player? It's like a slide-show you create with music, photos and quotes based on the branches of your tree. It did take a little time to get around as I never saw any specific directions. Someone that isn't web savvy could have trouble here. However, In choosing these little actions I realized what I am actually doing is creating small tasks or "actions" as they call them. Small daily task for me to act on. Again, I emphasize small. There is no reporting in to anyone. It's up to me to help myself improve in areas of my life I believe necessary.
Now, in doing actions you receive so many points for "rain" and for doing certain inspirational tasks you're awarded "sunshine." Once the cloud and sun are full your tree is watered and the sun will shine brightly upon it, therefore helping it to grow. It's a really neat idea! I'm inspired by it! It did take a couple of days to get the hang of it and understand some of the buttons. To be quite honest I figure out something new each time I sign on!
My little tree now sits surrounded by several new friends that I'm learning a little bit about each day since joining the
Christians Womens Affiliate. We have a forest of friends now growing trees. Today in fact I just realized you could play someone else's Inspirational Player! It's neat to see what other women draw strength from. To see what photos or quotes inspire them! Quite amazing the similarities.
As part of the CWA, I'm enjoying a personal goal set for our group in a fun, Olympic type event. We even have a Coach, Coach Liz!! Each day we are given an event to participate in. Todays challenging event; Sing Praises Out-loud! Yep, those around me just might need some ear plugs but this 2nd event is what led me to write this blog! So, before I go on about that let me encourage you to go visit Mindbloom. Plant your own tree, add me as a friend and lets grow the life we want together, helping each other! I'm listed as BridgitteSeiber.
Now....
A few months back I blogged about my pain associated with my back as well as the leg pain that comes with Multiple Sclerosis. To summarize, My neurologist sent me to a pain clinic to have a morphine pump installed or to see what other options we had to regulate my pain. That physician and I decided on the Spinal Cord Simulator. It's a device that emits electrical impulses internally to the source of pain. It was a remarkable day! Almost instantly the pain was gone. However I was told it was possible to have zero pain after the surgery due to the anesthesia and pain meds. Which turned out to be spot-on. About 12 days into recovery I noticed little twinges of pain under the surface of the simulator. Within a month the pain had gone from non-existence back to a lightly masked 9. This doesn't mean the simulator wasn't successful. It just isn't producing the full affect we had prayed for.
Mid treatment my physician moved to North Carolina. I was heartbroken! It seemed I had found someone who understood and was willing to help! In the meantime I was assigned to a Nurse Practitioner named Jay. Jay was wonderful for prescribing me pain meds and after my asking he was able to give me spinal injections at one appointment. He would spend all of 6 minutes with me. Some people may have loved that but I am searching for a life long solution.
My back will be healed and I know that the Power of God can do this. I also believe that sometimes He uses the healing hands of physicians to reach that goal. When I say I've tried it all that is no understatement. At some point I was so frustrated with "Jay", that I didn't even blog about it any longer. It was the same routine, every 29-30 days.
One Tuesday morning my as I met with my Home Health we began chatting about my frustrations with pain management. I do not want to be a percentage of Americans on pain meds just because I can get them. Don't get me wrong...I take them as prescribed and on brave days I try to go without any, but, then it ends up with me in bed for days recuperating from over doing it. so..... Home Health made a few phone calls on my behalf and on my next visit I was introduced to Dr. Maze.
OMG...from the moment Dr. Maze entered the room I had a feeling like none I'd experienced before. Her direct eye contact, her gentle voice, and her faith in GOD radiated everywhere!!! We sat, knee to knee and I told my "medical history". In those first three minutes I had blubbered out so much and so quickly. I somehow managed to end it with "I know God can heal me" and instantly we bonded. She instantly declared, "Yes, He can"! In answering questions, somehow, the fact that I blogged and kept a journal about my pain came up. She listened so tentatively that it actually AMAZEd me! Not even my neurologist of 10 years had asked and listened like this in, well...10 years! I basically begged for more frequent trigger point injections along my thoracic spine as well as the lumbar area. "No Problem, honey we can do that!" Just the previous month I'd been told by Jay this could only be done 3 times a year.
Well, I don't know who or what she's done but I'm now on my way to monthly injections!! I just know these will help me reduce the amount of narcotics I have to take!! I'm staying optimistic and truth be told I know Gods hands are all over this!! He knows my heart. He answers my cries. He formed this body! It's His to do His work. There is times- I'm not going to lie that I feel useless in a sense. Yet somehow I hear a song, read a page or see an AMAZE-ing sign that tells me I'm right where I belong and I snap out of it!
I really beat myself up because I can't work at the present. Then I think of the moments I would not have with my Jersey girl or any of my kids and grand-kids if I was nursing full-time! So you see He confirms my worth to me in our own weird and unusual ways that I understand!
Now I'm sure you're thinking:
1. where is she going with this....
2. why is AMAZE in capital, bold, red letters...
and I have your answers
1. where am I going with this....as I started this blog post about Mindbloom today it was really about the CWA group and our "Olympic daily game".
However, I had to give you the background of Mindbloom to;
A) introduce you to Mindbloom
and
B) so you'd get the whole story which was todays event. Singing and Praising God.
As I sat in the lobby waiting, a young woman sat in a wheelchair. Both of her legs gone. I smiled like most of us do. That polite, "Hi, how are you" type smile. Minutes later I played the video of todays CWA Olympic Event. When it finished she leaned over and said, "I know a great song". I turned, not realizing she had paid attention. She said, "Praise You In This Storm". My comment was, "That sound familiar, who sings it?" "Casting Crowns" she replys. In my mind I'm trying to recall it just as she openly begins telling me the story of how she lost her legs.
Friends, I listened to her story and I'm certain my facial expressions showed my reactions. She smiled the entire time and in a moment, a split second of a moment, while I was pitying her I suddenly realized she's praising God for being alive...not seeking pity for what she had lost. Our time ended as they called her name and for the life of me I can't remember it. I will however always remember her tiny, delicate body and her arms working diligently as she rolled away with her back to me.
I realized at that moment that several others had listened to our conversation. I do believe we all said, "WOW" or something equivalent at the same time. It was then that I decided to pull up that song on my ever-so-faithful "Google Nexus" phone. It loaded and I recalled what she said, "When it says 'my heart is torn' I replace the words with, 'my legs are torn'." Well, my Google failed me. It wasn't until I was in the room waiting on Dr. A. MAZE-ing that it loaded. She entered just as it began playing so I politely paused it. We proceeded with my injections. Small talking and going over meds. Before I knew it I was in my truck headed home.
The moment I was in my car I hit the play button and turned it up. My drive home was full of tears and mixed emotions! What a beautiful testimony she had just shared by giving me the name of this song! Wow! I have to wonder how many of those that overheard our conversation went home and inquired about the lyrics to this beautiful song. How many lives did she touch this morning besides me?
So, there I was, in tears, driving down I-40. "I'm suppose to be singing a praise song," I said out-loud. It's while I stated that I realized this was her praise song. My mind began recalling what she had said. This was the song that carried her while she lay injured, in the dark, in the desert, while working in Afghanistan. She was miles from help and thousands of miles from home. She turned inward and had found her strength from God and from her military experience. The details she shared of how she mentally had to hold on until help arrived. She described how she had to fight to live with the same courage she fought for her country. The grueling specifics and cold hard truth about her condition. Her body, gone from just below her hips.
Today, my 2nd Olympic event was to Sing out Loud and Praise God.
Today, I stand in awe of the young warrior in a wheelchair. I have my legs. She helped me see how to praise God even in the middle of the cruelest of events. She taught me how to Praise God and sing His praises without carrying a tune. She taught me you can sing His praises in the midst of total strangers. She also taught me that sometimes you are sharing Gods love by coming through the back door!
I have been singing loudly, "Praise You In This Storm," all day.
and, ironically enough, today is our first day of storms and rain since this drought! I had to smile to myself when the thunder made HIS presence known!
oh....and why the AMAZE ? My doctors name is Dr. Ambre Maze. pretty A-MAZE-ing, eh?
so...without CWA, without Mindbloom, without my sister, without Coach Liz' event, this blog could not have existed ...
Our God works in mysterious ways.
How does God communicate to you?
