Alternative Offerings

Several months ago I quit doing my daily offering of a drink to the Gods I am oathed to. While it was nice to have a daily practice, I found that I was losing the ‘specialness’ that came with it. If you are giving a daily cup of coffee, beer or other alcohol to each God you are oathed to, what are you going to do for special occasions? What about when you are making a more formal request? You are already giving them something each day, so how are you going to improve on that for intercessions? Further, it isn’t often that the daily adds up to them owing you anything as you probably aren’t building up any favors with a God you already have a relationship with.

Therefore, in order to make the practice more personal and less systematic, I decided to change my schedule of offerings to once a week. At first, the simple cup of coffee for each offered from my ‘weekend’ stash of whole bean coffee ground just before brewing sufficed. But even this practice started to quickly become systematic, and I realized that I would need to find another one that fit the growing work I was doing

My practice didn’t have to be daily, but it did have to have some sort of effort put in my me, and be somewhat equal between each God. So my attention turned to my weekend exercise routines to see if there was anything there that I could offer.

I am an avid runner, and do my best to run at least a 5K weekly. So on a run one day, the idea was born to dedicate one mile to Odin, one mile to Loki and the third mile dedicated to whomever I felt I needed to give it to at the time. By the second dedicated run, this practice became very powerful for me. To non-runners this practice may sound awful. But it was perfect for me. I adore running as it helps me to get out a lot of frustration, anger and any other stress I’m carrying from the week. There is a reason the saying “run the crazy off” is so popular among runners. Between burning off the emotional energy and the running high that you get after, it’s a wonderful experience, even without the dedication.

By offering those miles to divinity, I was offering something very intimate; something that was even more powerful than a simple cup of coffee could be. The reason it was so intimate is that I was offering something of myself to each God. For eleven minutes each week, I was offering my exertion, my sweat and (sometimes) tears for those 11 minutes.

But then my chronic conditions kicked in.

I suffer from Fibromyalgia, a disorder that causes chronic pain throughout your body. And while I do my best to keep it at bay, there are times when the pain levels become so extreme that laying on a couch is my only option. Fibromyalgia also can cause other problems including anxiety, fatigue, depression, IBS and a host of other illnesses as symptoms. And while I do my best to deal with all of these things, there are still times that things outside my control put me on the sidelines of many activities, which is where I currently find myself.

Another huge issue for me, and for many other fibromyalgia suffers, is that we eat. I gained around 40 pounds after my initial fibromyalgia diagnosis. And even though I have done a good job of starting to take that weight off, I’ve found that this particular bout of sitting on the sideline is becoming a struggle to continue to be mindful about what it is I am eating. Add the fact that I’m not running or doing much exercise at all right now; and my weight can easily balloon out of control like I’ve seen happen before.

But if the Gods appreciated the effort of giving a mile of my run as an offering, perhaps they would also value another, harder effort.

My new plan is to offer my successful mindful eating practices to the Gods. Every time I stop eating when I am full regardless of whether or not there is food on my plate or bowl, I will be giving an offering. Every time I eat slower and mindfully, I give another offering. And when I only eat when I’m hungry, I give a third offering.

It isn’t new to have self improvement as one of the goals of being a spiritual person. Ultimately, how can we do the work of the Gods if we are not taking care of our own physical and mental health? For me personally, self improvement is crucial in my religious work. That means that these offerings of mindful eating are every bit as intimate as the miles I ran. Perhaps these offerings will be even more personal as each one not only means I’m winning in my own battles with food addiction, but also strengthening my relationships with my Gods by becoming healthier.

I don’t expect these offerings to be permanent. I am really hoping that in the near future I will be able to run again, and get back to an activity level that allows me to continue to do the things I enjoy. But until then, I firmly believe that the offerings I have come to are an excellent substitute.