When you make the choice to abstain from food for a period of time, it's funny how quickly you end up missing it.
The first day always seems relatively easy for me when you compare it to day 2. That's a whole different story. (More on the second day tomorrow morning). So for the first day I just tried to curb my craving and things got more hectic when I got a burger at McDonalds for my wife. Just the thought of the smell of burgers is making me drool.
Dealing with the food cravings is completely physical in the sense that I'm trying to stave of my hunger by thinking or doing other things. Actually, that's every day of the fast but if I remember correctly, about halfway through, a person kind of goes through a change. It's almost as if you get into a rhythm and your body becomes accustomed to not eating during the day.
Just working on not eating or drinking fluids made me think about the purpose of the fast and how I am way off when it comes to perspective. For me, I feel like I have done a good job if I keep from breaking the fast during daylight. For others, it seems that the goal is to gain a greater spiritual perspective.
This quote from `Abdu'l-Bahá pretty much explains what the fast really is about:
"Fasting is of two kinds, material and spiritual. The material fasting is abstaining from food or drink, that is, from the appetites of the body. But spiritual, ideal fasting is this, that man abstain from selfish passions, from negligence and from satanic animal traits. Therefore, material fasting is a token of the spiritual fasting."
The physical reminds us of the spiritual...That's something I'm going to have to think about.
This was one heck of a fantastic veggie juice. It's not much to look at but it was one of the first things I had after the sun set today. Totally rejuvenating.
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