My own image, designed on Canva
While growing up, we were not taught the importance of fasting. We only went to church, observed vigil, and did morning devotion and that was it. They never emphasised how powerful fasting is to the soul and mankind. We ate three times in a day and this continued till when my mom passed away. After her burial and while staying with my dad, I attended a church where I became a choir. You know, you cannot be a worker in God's vineyard and not observe fasting. The Redeemed Christian Church of God has its schedule when it comes to fasting. At least, they do 40 days of fasting twice a year if I am not mistaken (in fact, up till now, I still shy away from it 馃槄)
When I joined the choir, I started taking fasting seriously but what I did not know was that as a beginner, you have to start teaching yourself from scratch, like, starting with some hours in a day first, then next time, you try fasting for the whole day and when it becomes a habit, you can go on 3 days or more marathon fasting but make sure you are fully prepared for it so you don't end up counting the ceilings on the second day. Lol.
So, on this particular day, I started with fasting from 6 am to 12 pm for a start. Oh my God, it wasn't easy. For someone who has always loved eating 3 square meals now became someone who was limited for some hours. The creatures in my stomach disturbed me that day, they started to torture me till I couldn't walk again and was shaking. I laid down on the chair watching how the hand of the clock was moving slowly and there was nothing to do. I started imagining a lot of things and thinking of how I was going to eat bowls of food when I end the fast. I tried to sleep but I couldn't. Those little creatures were making me feel tired and tormenting my life. But when it was some minutes before noon, I broke my fast with a short prayer as I couldn't endure it anymore. If I remember, I only fasted for 4 days out of 40 days. Hahaha 馃槅
A picture of my aunt and myself at an event
Then, I moved to stay with my aunt. I never knew that would be my worst experience ever when it comes to fasting with her. If it's possible for my aunt not to eat at all while she keeps turning fresh and okay, she would gladly do it. She loved and still loves fasting. One thing about her is that she forces other people to fast with her even when it's inconvenient for them.
Sometimes, she won't even inform you ahead that there would be fasting, we would just wake up one day and boom, she would announce during morning devotion that there is fasting for the day. Hahaha, what kind of trouble did I bring on myself? I wasn't prepared for this na. She would make sure you break at 6 p.m. when I was struggling to get to noon. Well, since she tried coercing my brother and I, we never bothered to take prayer seriously as it wasn't a willingly thing.
I became smart. I would have hidden some portion of garri (cassava flakes) with all the ingredients under my bed. Anytime she announces fasting unexpectedly, I won't even argue with her, "okay ma", that is all I would say but what I would do is in my mind. You don't have to argue with people like her when you know what is on your mind to carry out. Once the fasting has started, I will just lock myself in the room while I enjoy my sweet meal and then rub my mouth clean as if nothing has happened. Let her continue fasting 馃槅
Before Grandma's burial, she made everyone in the house fast thrice a month, and we agreed. We understood we needed to pray and fast for the success of the burial but the event ended and she came up with another fasting scheduled 3 times in another month. What is this? I trust my family, they didn't answer including me. I am not saying fasting is not good but she makes it look as if whatever she says or wants, we must do it even when there is no tangible reason for it. I tried asking her the reason behind this new fasting and couldn't get a response.
You see ehn, I value food so much. When it comes to food, don't joke with me. For any fasting, I am always prepared for it but my aunt doesn't inform anyone ahead of time and would first send a message to everyone in the night that there would be fasting the next morning.
Why sudden information when I already had plans of the kind of meal to eat the next day? Even in my sleep, I would imagine the process of the meal and how it would look so delicious and somebody would come and ruin it for me. Now, I don't even check her messages on WhatsApp. When she calls and asks if I saw any message, since I already know the content in it, I would deny not seeing it with the excuse that I disabled my notification and didn't get notified. Lol, My aunt is something else when it comes to forcing someone to fast 馃檭