My doctor

wants me to limit my starchy carbs. And by doctor, I mean chiropractor. He's very into the total picture of wellness. Apparently my adrenal gland is working overtime, I have too much estrogen, and a few other things. This will help.

So. The past few days have meant junk food for me; starting a new job, driving all around, school...I'm very ready to get some REAL food into my system. I need to make myself go grocery shopping today and pick up a few things.

He didn't say to cut them out, but the more I limit the easier it'll be.

The million dollar question.

I'm retaining water. And puffy. And feeling generally anxious and sad and fumpy and blech.

So. What am I going to do about it? I'm going to go have lunch soon...I'm going to have a large salad with tuna. Maybe some sort of soup or something. There is a sandwich bar, I think, so I'll have a sandwich made and eat it tonight after training. Tonight's dinner isn't something I want. I don't know what I'll do for dinner.

What else would make me feel better? I need to wear something tonight that I feel comfortable and cute in. Maybe my all black work clothes. I have to work later...I'll bring my novel. I'll probably be able to finish it. I also need to do a reflection for one of my classes.

I'm sitting here eating candy. This is not helping.

I don't know what to feel anymore.

Guilty for binging? Okay with it, because I'm improving? I've had a lot of junk this week. It hasn't felt totally out of control, but it was binges (and my behavior in them changed...going for food I really liked, etc). I wrote a bit about it on Shape, and they way they responded is making me feel guilty. Something like, "there has GOT to be a better way to deal with emotions; we all have sucky ones." Thats true. But I'm also growing and exploring and learning new ways an making progress. It felt like they were almost demeaning my experience. A binge is BAD. Feel guilty! Repent! I dunno...maybe a binge is something else.

I don't really want to feel guilty right now.

Woman-God.

Gender in the Imago Dei

A woman at a corporate social gathering approaches the buffet table to snag some shrimp cocktail; she was hungry and searching for something to eat. When she gazed up and down the buffet table, she realized that all that was left of the thousand dollar spread were remnants. All of the good, whole pieces of nourishment were taken. Peering discreetly around the room, the nameless woman realized that all of her male colleagues were busy picking at full plates. The minority of her peers, the women, were virtually food-less.

It seems to be a silly example, but it serves as a slight metaphor for the traditional Christian church. Because of gender-biased language, traditions, and teachings, women experience an exclusion from the church, the place that is supposed to give them nourishment. For the majority of the church body, God is presented as male, yet believers claim that God is beyond understanding and genderless. This discrepancy in orthodoxy and orthopraxis have deeply wounded its’ believers, male and female. God has been presented as a woman, but has been ignored for a more “correct” image of God as male. This serves a purpose; to perpetuate patriarchy and keep men in their “comfort zone,” which is leading and serving over women, not next to women. If we, as a believing community, embraced both genders as accurate images of God, we would have a more complete picture of faith.

Jonathan F. Bassett and John E. Williams from the Department of Psychology at Georgia State University conducted an experiment entitled “Protestants’ Images of Self, God, and Satan as Seen in Adjective Check List Descriptions.” In this experiment, the directors asked 102 Protestant students from an urban university to describe their images of God, Satan, and Self with a questionnaire/check list. “Participants described God as gender neutral, favorable, and strong, but not active, and high on the nurturing parent ego state (Protestants 1).” This study was consistent with previous studies which showed

[t]hat although people use masculine images such as father when talking about God they view him (her) as androgynous, possessing both masculine and feminine characteristics. . . . [A]verage participants possessed a New Testament image of God as nurturing and loving and not an Old Testament image of God as vindictive and punishing (Protestants’ 10).

These typical Protestant students showed that they believe that God is both masculine and feminine. But when they were asked to describe God in adjectives, the majority of the students chose masculine imagery. The directors of this study referenced another study (Lee and Early, 2000) in which 97.9% of respondents chose God as father over mother, when they were asked to choose between the two (Protestants’ 12). This study shows the discrepancy between Christian beliefs and actions. As a whole, we believe the God is not a specific gender, yet we label and refer to God solely as “He,” neglecting the feminine aspects of God.

Some would say that the use of a single-gendered language is simply a model for reflection. Christians innately know that God transcends gender issues; using “man” as the example for God is simply time saving and meant to include everyone. The church would say that it certainly isn’t their intention to exclude women; God is all-inclusive. Joseph A. Bracken, S.J., a retired professor of theology at Xavier University, wrote an essay for Theological Studies in which he discussed the images of God. “[M]odels are neither literal pictures nor useful fictions but limited and inadequate ways of imagining what is not observable. They make tentative ontological claims that there are entities in the world something like those postulated in the models (Theological 2).” Bracken illustrates the fact that models, like using exclusive “He” images to refer to God, are understandable ways of trying to picture God, but that does not mean that they are correct of even helpful. God is indescribable, simply because of His/Her nature. As humans, who wish to know and worship this God, we need some sort of image…something to hold onto, that we can relate with. Very rarely (if ever) will a single image be relatable and liberating for all people, of all lands, and all genders.

When we view God as solely male or female, we invariably bring into discussion the sexuality of God, and not simply His/Her gender. Does the fact that male and female were created in God’s image “imply that God has a sexual nature and that sexuality itself discloses the divine image (Interpretation 8)?” Perhaps sexuality is a separate blessing, used to create “dominion” over the Earth (as we were told to procreate). Professor Emeritus of Biblical Interpretation W. Sibley Towner explains:

If we see the image of the divine in the maleness and femaleness of humankind, it is not their sexual conjunction per se. That comes as a separate divine authorization of what would in any case be necessary for survival, multiplication, and dominion. ‘Image’ is manifested in their very plurality and consequent fellowship (Interpretation 9).

As Towner suggests, the true image of God is seen in the union of both genders, not explicitly in the sexuality of each individual one. By focusing on the male gender as a metaphor for God, the church has excluded the other half…the female divinity. By doing so, we are only experiencing half of the image of God. If we were to join up both images, the Christian church would have a more complete image of God. By ignoring one side, the church has made a devastating mistake by not only excluding half of the population, but also by limiting its’ view of God.

It is not even that the church has been ignorant of the image of God the Mother; it’s that the church explicitly ignored God the Mother. There are specific instances in the Old and New Testaments where the writers refer to God in feminine metaphors. The Gnostic Gospels spoke explicitly of God the Mother, but they have all been shunned and ignored. For instance, Isaiah 42:14 says that God “will cry out like a woman in labor, I will gasp and pant.” Isaiah 46:3-4 says that God has borne the house of Israel, and was carried in God’s womb; “I will carry and I will save.” God will also comfort as a mother comforts her child (Isaiah 66: 13) and never forget her child (Hosea 11:3-4; Isaiah 49:15). As Elizabeth A. Johnson points out in her book She Who Is, there are also pictures of the protective side of a mother. As Hosea 13:8 shows, God is like a “bear robbed of her cubs; I will tear open their breast.” There are numerous verses in the Scriptures showing God as a mother; we were even born of God (John 1:13). Somehow, we forget our Mother, as Deuteronomy 32:18 explains; “You were unmindful of the Rock that bore you; you forgot the God who gave you birth.” The Scriptures are as explicit as they could possibly be, given the limitations of the culture and time, to say that God has feminine qualities as well as masculine ones. As Johnson points out, “The Jewish and Christian Scriptures recognize the importance of the mother-child relationship when they use the metaphors of pregnancy and birth, suckling and feeding, carrying and training, the anger of the mother bear and the protective wing of the mother hen to refer to God’s creative relationship with the world (She 171).” It’s not the holy texts that lack references to God as a woman or mother, but the patriarchal church that has ignored them.

Before we know why they have been ignored, it is essential to know how they have been ignored. A specific example of the ignorance of the church is the translation of the name for God, El Shaddai. As Sue Monk Kidd examines her experience with the in her book The Dance of the Dissident Daughter:

I was especially intrigued with the phrase El Shaddai, in an interesting name for God that occurs forty-eight times in the Bible. It has been traditionally translated “the almighty” or, more exactly “God of the mountain.” But shad is also a Hebrew word for breast. The ending ai is an old feminine ending, therefore a probably ancient meaning of El Shaddai was “the breasted one.” God, the breasted one (146).

A common name for God has been commonly translated by the church to mean a male characteristic. “The almighty” suggests a deity that is all powerful and mighty; brave, courageous and commanding. The other translation, a very feminine imagery of “God, the breasted one,” has been completely disregarded for the former, male imagery. This was a great opportunity for the church to embrace the divine feminine, to embrace the gestating, birthing, and nurturing aspects of our God. Unfortunately, the church chose simply to embrace the more comfortable position of a powerful, almighty King, and wounded all of its followers in the process.

The other, more obvious element of harmful male language is seen in the Trinity. Christians believe that their God is three-in-one; three beings in one deity. These beings are God the Father, God the Son, and the Holy Spirit. God the Father is commonly imagined as exactly that; the God that we picture in our minds when we pray and worship. God the Son is God’s son, Jesus, who came to Earth to save our souls. These two images can be easily mixed and clumped together as one being. The Holy Spirit is one third of the Trinity that is less understood than the other two. We don’t have a mental image of the Holy Spirit, except as possibly an androgynous being; an opaque ghost-like wind. And, if that imagery isn’t suitable, the church falls back onto male personification for the Hoy Spirit. It’s interesting that it isn’t simply God who is referred to as a man, but at least two thirds of the Trinity is referred to as male. Why is there no female imagery?

At one point, there was. “[T]he [Hebrew] term for the spirit of God or Holy Spirit is a feminine term,” writes Kidd.

It is the word ruah, and it occurs 378 times. Many times ruah is used to refer to the life of God of the essence through which the Divine acts. It is this transcendent spirit of God that eventually came to be known as Wisdom, referred to in Old Testament scripture by the feminine term, hokhmah. But the fascinating thing is that hokhmah or Wisdom is not merely a concept but is personified as a woman (147-48).

The Holy Spirit has feminine roots in the biblical language and tradition. Wisdom is God’s self reflection, an extension of God. Wisdom has been given deity-like characteristics, and is exalted as good. The Holy Spirit may have been the female counterpart in the Trinity, but has been played down to a base level; Christians today have a very sparse understanding of this third of the Trinity, let alone recognition of the divine feminineness.

Christians are taught to pray to God the Father. We are taught that our worth is given to us because we were created by God the Father. Our status is recognized in relation to me; are we a good wife? A good mother? (Of course, this is judged by male standards). Women’s experience of conceiving, growing, birthing, and nourishing a child is all but shunned in the biblical creation story. The world was borne of a male God, and ruled by the same deity. We are taught that God is a good man, kind and just and loving…but a man nonetheless. What if women were raised being able to crawl into the divine feminine lap and cry and heal…instead of approaching a “just” authoritarian Father? How would this change the experience of all Christians?

We have seen a harmful discrepancy between the Christian belief of God and expression of God. We say that God is gender-neutral, encompassing all, yet we refer to God solely as male. Partially because of Joseph A. Bracken’s work, we now realize that a model is inadequate at describing beings that we cannot see. God is also not seen as a gender, but in the union of both genders. The divine feminine has been ignored in Christian language and experience, despite the fact that she has been present in the beginnings of the Church.

It is incredibly unfortunate that the nourishing buffet presented by a loving God has been dominated and gobbled up by men. “There’s plenty left over,” some would say. “My faith is adequate for everyone.” This simply isn’t true, and because the struggle for liberation by the feminine minority in Christianity has been ignored, devalued, and ridiculed, our faith as a whole is starving. This is not a woman problem…this is a community problem. By refusing to let women taste the divine feminine, but humiliating them if they thirst for such nourishment, patriarchal Christianity is slowly destroying the souls of all of its believers. If we worship one gender, we have half of a faith. If we partake in half of a faith, everything we believe has the potential to be false. Not only would a more feminine spirituality let God out of the box that we’ve put Him/Her in, it would allow us as believers to experience God in a brand new way. Feminine love, as Kidd writes, “reunites us with each other, with nature, with the whole (156).” Feminine love…a feminine deity…completes God.

Big Girls - You Are Beautiful

Yeah, whatever. I still like the song by Mika, though.

So, I think I have strep. It HURTS. I'm also worried about the night and early morning, because that tends to be the worst time. It's not just a scratchy throat; my tonsils are HUGE with white spots and mucus all over them. Yuck. I just want to crawl in bed for awhile.

MIKA Big Girl (You Are Beautiful) Lyrics

Big girl, you are beautiful

Walks in to the room
Feels like a big balloon
I said "Hey girls, you are beautiful."
Diet Coke and a pizza please
Diet Coke I'm on my knees
Screaming, "Big girls, you are beautiful!"

You take your skinny girl
I feel like I'm gonna die
'Cause a real woman needs a real man, is why
You take your girl and multiply her by four
Now a whole lot of woman needs a whole lot more

Chorus:
Get yourself to the butterfly lounge
Find yourself a big lady
Big boy come on around
And there we're gonna do baby
No need to fantasize
Since the words are my phrases
A watering hole
With girls all around
[ Lyrics found on http://www.metrolyrics.com ]

Curves in all the right places

Big girls you are beautiful [4x]

Walks in to the room
Feels like a big balloon
I said "Hey girls, you are beautiful."
Diet Coke and a pizza please
Diet Coke I'm on my knees
Screaming, "Big girls, you are beautiful!"

You take your girl and multiply her by four
Now a whole lot of woman needs a whole lot more


Feels like a big balloon? Multiply by 4? I guess I'm that big. Gah. Why all this self hatred? I was doing so well earlier. I've been fine. I know I'll have these episodes. I think part of it is being sick...and being tired...and being back from break and transitioning...I need to give myself grace.

Earlier today I reached for a pint of Ben and Jerry's. I'd tried to distract myself and work through it, but all I could think about was stuffing my throat with something cold, creamy, and sweet. And I knew I had it in the freezer. I was in the middle of a bite when I realized that I was playing mommy to myself. I was trying to give myself what I needed to feel better. There are all sorts of conflicting emotions in that...but I guess I just wanted a mommy. I wasn't strong enough to go it alone.

I really want to go home.

I feel overwhelming. Like I'm too much for everyone. I'm too forward, too nice, too big, too overwhelming, too confusing...I don't like this. My biggest fantasy is simply being held by a man who is larger than me; I want to feel containable. I guess this is where I get my control issues from. I feel out of control; like I need to be contained (in a negative way). This is a very lonely and frustrating place to be.

I don't necessarily want to CHANGE who I am...I just want to feel better about this. But I don't know how.

I feel anxious today. My mouth is tingly...like it wants to work. It's such an odd feeling.

I cannot WAIT for spring break.

Oh my word. I just need to get out. To rest.

Today is one of those days where I'm just down. I'm not sure why. I'm sure it has something to do with the boy from last night, and my mom's simple response this morning. I had cookies and pizza for lunch. It wasn't even good...but I wated it. I didn't want to care about calories. I also had a ton of candy yesterday. Ugh.

I'm tired. I don't understand why people aren't attracted to me. Maybe I don't have to understand. I *know* that I'm worth it. That I'm lovable and even pretty. But the only experience I've had is with a horny man who would do anything...nothing even remotely romantic. I wish I had that now; I just want to be touched. Somehow I think that being held will make my problems seem easier to handle.

Whatever.

I'm amazing.

There was a boy over tonight, and I kind of like him. We were joking around, and I got hints of who he liked. It didn't look favorable for me, and so I got depressed.

Long story short...I was able to pull myself out of it. I could feel myself deciding that this wasn't worth ruining my night. I still decided to eat...but I DECIDED to. It just took someone to point out the possibilities.

Yay me. :)


I still don't want to believe that he COULD be talking about me...but either way. I'm good.

So I registered for next years classes

Fall:
personality theory
art history
christian eliefs
statistics
chem/lab
drug and alcohol addiction

Spring:
systems of psychology
smerican women of faith
sociology of sexuality
abnormal psychology
x cult. exp. Ireland/Scotland

I still may have some tweaks to work out, but this is what it is so far. I will need to sign up for research methods for the spring, but its not letting me because I haven't taken stats (which I'm taking in the fall).

I have a doctor's appointment on Friday morning to get a new prescription (its taking FOREVER) and then a chiropractor appointment that afternoon. My back hurts...I'm in such pain! I'm trying to stretch it and move it and I'm even taking ibuprofin (partly for cramps and partly for my back). We'll see. I may even ice it tonight.

I'm super excited for spring break. I can't WAIT to have a week off and play with my fun new artsy stuff and read a novel and get a pedicure and just hang out. Mom, grandma and I will be going to the beach for a night; that should be fun. I think dad is taking me to Saturday market, or some other fun places in Portland. I'll be "dogsitting," so I'll be getting some money from that. I'm super excited. I'll also be searching for jobs, and that will be good; it'll give me more peace of mind that I have a plan for the summer. I hope everything goes well. I'm also going to try and approach my parents about my car, re more intependence. I'll need to be very careful with my words and such...and not ask for too much, blah blah blah.

Oh...I turn 20 in two months. Isn't that just...weird? It feels old and young at the same time. Yay. :)

I feel like I should...

make a plan. Like, work out every morning this week. I'm convinced that my eating hasn't been that great, and that working out would be easier than eating "right." I don't know. Maybe I will I tend to have to do things every day (its that all or nothing thing)...I don't keep a long-range plan in mind. Anyway...I will write more later.

Guess who's going to start her period today!

That would be me. I've got the backaches and the cramps. It's weird...I knew that I was going to get it around the 18th...and the week before I'm usually super emotional. I made it through the week almost unscathed. Yes, I had my nights, but I'm amazed that the intensity wasn't as bad as before. Craziness.

So. Another day of studying. Then a week of classes...then spring break! My spring break won't be *THAT* great. I'm just going home (which will be interesting). I'm going to the beach for a night with my grandma and mom...and I'm dog-sitting (which means cash for Jill). I'm going to apply for jobs...

I'm also going to get a pedicure, read a novel...yay. :) I actually read half of a novel yesterday. It felt sooooooooo good.

I don't have much else to post. I'd like to weigh..but I don't want to. I'm giving myself 6 more weeks to lose 10 pounds. I don't think I've done "good" enough to warrant a little loss. Maybe after my period...maybe in a week.

Friday

Breakfast: serving of fries, serving of Pringles
Good stuff was in the house from last nights binge....I was/am frustrated about the "extra roommate" that we picked up this weekend, and the fact that she's been in the bathroom for an hour and I have to pee. I'm also thinking about yesterday...trying to keep it in focus and trying to forget about it at the same time.

I'm going to...

keep a log of what I eat (which I already do) and ALSO how I'm feeling. I've always skipped this part, thinking that it wouldn't be relevant...that I already knew what I was feeling, etc. I'm not sure why I need to write this down..but I am. Accountability, I guess. :)

Bah.

I have to go take an exam, but when I'm done, I want to write about my living situation for next year. I so don't want to live on campus. But I don't want to live at home, either. So the next option is living in an apartment off campus. There are two problems with that.

1.) Money.
2.) Campus Policy

Unless I can be sneaky with the lease and have my parents own the lease, I can't move off campus. And I don't know if I'll necessarily have my parents approval. It seems like another fight. Why make waves? Why try something else if you could just live on campus? I DON'T WANT TO LIVE ON CAMPUS. I don't want to live with people. I want to live on my own. I can get a job, and I can pay rent. My parents will be opposed to that, because I need to be studying, not working. But I'm unhappy on campus. I want to be near campus...and NOT at home. Too controlling. I simply don't know what to do.

It's silly and juvenile, I know.

I just ate a handful of peanut M&M's. They've been sitting in front of me for two hours.

I want spring clothes. I e-mailed mom ideas...but apparently she won't buy anything for me ...she just avoided it (money is a weird subject with us).

It made me feel bad, rejected, like I can't be the other kids. I'm the outsider. I thought the M&M's would help. They didn't.

So. I'm angry and hurt. I want new clothes to feel better and look better. To be like the other rich kids on campus. But...I guess not now.

I did..

I worked out for 20 minutes. I had diet pepsi at the coffee place.

Then I came home and had smart pop kettle corn and a can of tuna with black beans, mustard, and three slices of low carb bread.


Hmm. I guess it wasn't as bad as I thought...

I had therapy today.

And we talked about weight loss for most of it. I was just really discouraged. I know that I want to lose weight, but my actions aren't following. I can see progress in individual circumstances, but not in the actual weight loss. That's where I need the progress. I also feel stuck, though. I know that a diet isn't the answer, it's sticking to the diet or lifestyle or whatever. It's not as easy as that, though. Anyone knows that. Anyway.

We talked about goals. I told her that it would be cool to lose 10 pounds by the end of April (when the school year is over), and another 5 in that month by my birthday. Wouldn't that be neat? It's also reasonable. My Diet Analysis Software says that I can definately do that by eating 2200 calories a day. Cool.

So then I go and have dinner. I come back and tally up my day, and I've had 2400 calories. I knew I had to write about it...to keep things in perspective. That's only 200 over my target, right? I can't copy/paste it into here, but I did have my fruit, and my vegetables, and my lean meats. I was going to go get coffee later...

Everyone's gone from the apartment. I could do a workout video. I could go for a walk (it's absolutely gorgeous outside). Hmm. I'll got for a walk for 30 minutes. Then maybe I can get some coffee later...this would be a good night to practice the things my therapist wants me to do. She thinks I should make a plan, three steps, to do when I want to eat but know that I don't need to eat. I can do that right now. Hmm.

First: Distance myself; go outside for a minute, sit in the living room, etc.
Second: Write about it. It can be angry, sad, lonely, whatever.
Third: 15 girlie pushups. I need to do something physical, but I won't always be able to workout.

That sounds good. I'll make that into a little card later tonight. I'm going to go for a walk...and then I'll make the card, and then I'll go to the coffeeshop, and hopefully study some. This is a good thing. :)

What the hell is this?

It's about 4:00. I've been looking forward to eating dinner for hours. I'm sitting at work, hating any obstruction between me and my food (even the tent set-up). I want to snack so badly, and I've already had some peanut M&M's. I'm not entirely sure what this is...or how to overcome it.

I suppose I have a choice. I could give in and snack more. I could wait for my meal, whenever it comes. Okay. Dinner in 10 minutes, at 4:30. I WILL have a reasonable meal. I swear to myself that I will treat myself well at dinner.

FOURTH, people!

That's the number in line my group is to sign up for Junior's Abroad (remember how much I want to go on the Ireland/Scotland trip?!?!). There was a short scare; someone thought we were 31ST IN LINE! But we're fourth. So...we're pretty much guaranteed the trip we want. :)

I did end up journaling the other day. Good for me. :) My eating was good...until I had two Top Ramen packages late at night. My calorie average for the last 3 days has been about 3000 calories. Not good. I need about 1900 or 2000. I e-mailed my mom - I would like my car so that I could drive to Bally's to take fitness classes. I think that would be lovely. But I'm not going to count on it.

I guess just keep trying...

I really wish

that I didn't have such an aversion to journaling. I want to...I feel a need to. But I simply put too much pressure on myself and end up avoiding it. It's like journaling isn't worth my time. But it IS...it's the same with scrapbooking. I always want to do it perfectly. I know that I can create things that I love...that mean something to me. And that is good enough.

:)

After dinner tonight, I WILL journal. It doesn't have to be long...it doesn't have to be intense or deep. But I think I'll enjoy it. :)