Help you I can, yes!

Those who know me well know that I often speak in Yodic. And what is Yodic, you say? Well, let me explain. Yodic is a special form of speaking introduced back in the 1980's when the George Lucas film Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back came to the big screens all over the world. Yoda, a fictional little green guy, is known as the Grand Master of the Jedi Order and trains Luke Skywalker, another character in the film, to fight against the evil Galactic empire. While I'm not a huge Sci Fi movie fan, Star Wars and this specific character caught my attention.

I loved Yoda's verbal syntax as he would often speak sentences in object, subject, verb word order. For some reason, that appealed to me very much and I often found myself processing thoughts in my mind this way. My children have come to know that I find joy in speaking to them in Yodaspeak. My Texas grandchildren have become enamored with Yoda's interesting voice as well and the youngest of the three, Caden, can use Yodaspeak as clearly and profoundly as Yoda himself! 

You may be wondering where I'm going with this train of thought and at first, I wondered the same thing. The more I thought about it though, I realized that Yoda, though fictional and strangely odd, had some very truth filled sayings under his Jedi belt, and I wanted to focus on those for a few moments. Here are some of my favorites:

“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” Wow. That one is full of things to ponder isn't it? Fear can become overwhelming leading us into a pit of dark despair. Fear is powerful and often causes us to needlessly suffer. It was so easy to instantly become fearful of the word Cancer. For days I allowed myself to be consumed with it. I allowed that fearfulness to have power over me. The more fearful I became, the angrier I got. I did not want Cancer! I hated Cancer! I made myself sick hating the fact that I had Cancer. 

Then I began to research and study Cancer in order to learn more about it and then, I heard another Yoda quote in my mind :  “You must unlearn what you have learned.” Okay. So after I'd spent days and days reading and studying all about Breast Cancer, treatments, etc. I now needed to put all of that out of my mind and unlearn what I'd learned? Yes. Now, I know this is going to sound really strange, so please bear with me. I know the Yodaspeak I heard about unlearning what I'd learned was the Holy Spirit speaking to me. No, I don't believe the Holy Spirit speaks in Yodaspeak! Heaven forbid! But I do believe God knows my heart and knew that I needed to unlearn everything I had just learned about Cancer and He told me in no uncertain terms. But why?

Another Yoda quote will help clear that up: “When you look at the dark side, careful you must be. For the dark side looks back.” Too much knowledge isn't a good thing and in the case of my researching Breast Cancer, it could lead me back down a path of fear. Fear is the opposite of trust. I don't want to be consumed with the darkness of Cancer. William Cowper said, "Knowledge is proud that it knows so much; wisdom is humble that it knows no more." I have to choose to be wise. I have to gather only the facts that will be beneficial to my journey. I must discard things that frighten, tear down, and confuse. I have to choose to trust God and His plan for me. I must not become fearful, so yes...I do need to unlearn what I have learned. 

One last quote from Yoda that touched me in a profound way: "Do or do not. There is no try." Wow. Very applicable to fighting the Cancer war, isn't it? I must either choose to fight or give up. If I only try to fight, without giving it my all, I will fail. I must do! That means I must be willing to give 100% to winning this battle. I can't give less than that. Only trying gives an opportunity for my failure. I must commit.

Thank you for indulging me in my odd post for the day. Many of you are already scratching your heads thinking, I thought I knew her so well....what in the world is all this??? Don't worry! I'm not a Star Wars aficionado. I don't talk like Yoda all the time! On rare occasions, when I want to have a little fun with my kids or grands, I do talk to them in Yodic. For me, it's just a funny way to say what I want to say. "Cancer I have, but it has me not...mmmm, yeeessss."Admit it, you want to try it too now don't you? All silliness aside though, I did realize today that I must understand that if I am to win this fight, the battle for my life, I have to be willing to give it everything I have within me. I can't go into this war with a gun half cocked. If I am not willing to dive in head first and win this thing, then I might as well give up now. Mine if I persevere, success is! (Sorry, I couldn't help throwing in just one more!)

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