My momma has cancer. Stage four colon cancer, diagnosed in September of 2013, to be exact. The long story of our family's journey since that day will come later. For now, we will talk about how BUSY benefit planning is! The weeks, and especially the final days, leading up to this past Saturday were stressful, to say the least. Worrisome, sleepless, and sweaty. No, literally; I've never sweat so much, constantly, in all my life. For weeks, I could smell myself, and I promise I've NEVER stunk so bad, for no good reason, before. I actually didn't quite figure out why I smelled so badly until Thursday (a couple days before the benefit) when a Facebook friend, Sara Eye, posted a video by Paul Chek about bodily fluids and what they mean. I never got past minute six, because I heard what I needed to hear in thy moment. I saved it so I can go back and watch he full 25 minutes, but in those six minutes, sweat was discussed. Clearly, if you're healthy and all your hormones are in line, your sweat should just smell like your skin. It shouldn't smell sweet, and it certainly shouldn't stink like I'd been stinking. To summarize, if you smell foul, it's because of one or a few things. Eating crappy processed foods, CAFO meats, etc. will make your sweat smell foul. Dehydration will also make people not want to hug you. And then stress. Ahhhh yes. Stress. Stress will mess with your hormones, and thus, really make you feel the need to shower. Often. Why didn't I think of that!? It all made sense! I'd only had a marginal (ha!) amount of worry, from multiple avenues in the last few months, along with stressing about making sure the event went well, yeah...you could say I was stressed out. So what was I to do? Well? Stressing completely out would be minimized after Saturday's event, I'd hoped. I hadn't slept well in weeks. That didn't help either. I seriously cracked down on my stress away essential oil in the days leading up to Saturday, and while my sleep still suffered, between that, peace and calming essential oil, and a sleepy time tincture made by a good friend of mine, I was actually allowed a few good hours here and there in those days.
The "Lend Some Love" Benefit for my momma couldn't have gone better if I'd hoped for it, and everyone was happy, pleasant, kind, and generous. It was day I'll never ever forget, full of family, wonderful friends, and community. And that night? I slept like I can't remember sleeping in months. Like a rock. A stress free, not thinking about what I had to get done the next day, already decided I wasn't going to do a damn thing on Sunday, PEACEFUL HARD AS A ROCK SLEEP. It felt amazing. I woke up Sunday relieved. I felt a little run over from the length and energy required the day before, but my mind was better. I drank more water, and rested. By today, guess what? Smellin just fiiiiine. Thank goodness. Stress ain't a good thing y'all. ;) We all have it, and some of it is far more difficult to control and eliminate than others. Pay attention to your body, and it'll be easier to figure out what's going on.
That brings me to the aftermath of a benefit. This house is a wreck. Lol. I never made it to the store, never prepped a thing, so tonight's dinner was a quick chili. Crunched up some sweet potato chips and called it good. ;) The house is still a mess, but this aftermath is worth every ounce of smelly sweat, every sleepless night, and every near breakdown. We raised over $11,000 for momma. We can all rest a little easier (and less smelly) now. The laundry and grocery shopping can wait.
