Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. Yesterday Laury asked me if I was giving up anything for Lent. My reply is certainly not conventional; I don't give things up for Lent. To me, the Lenten season is about discipline, not necessarily about deprivation. I have many bad habits that I could give up, but what I need more are good habits to replace them. Afterall, if the bad habits go away...desserts, excess salt, too much solitaire on the computer...there will be a void. What will fill it? I know that it's supposed to be God who fills those places you empty out, but that doesn't always happen.
So, I choose instead to add a discipline to my daily life, a discipline that reminds me of God's presence and of the journey we're on right now. I choose to use this time to deepen my faith and to connect more fully with God's spirit. I choose to find those things that will grow me from a tightly clenched bud to an open-handed, spiritually filled, spiritually free woman. Like the spring flowers here, I'm on a journey of growth and blossoming. And like these same spring flowers, there will be death and re-birth at the end of the journey...Jesus' death and resurrection, the revitalization of my faith and hopefully, a positive discipline to my life. Blogging regularly here is the first of my Lenten disciplines.
