Remember, man, that thou art dust, and to dust thou shalt return.
With those words, Father Joe marked my forehead with ashes and Ash Wednesday was complete.
(Wow it looks like some huge, giant fake hand is holding my iPhone in this pic…!)
As part of a variety of things I am doing for Lent this year, 40 days of blogging will be one of them. Fiona (aka Bun Toting Librarian) from Queensland and I are giving it a go – she wrote a great piece on Ash Wednesday today. Last night, Bill and I had a big dinner of pancakes for Shrove Tuesday for dinner and we fasted today. My tummy is rumbling now – but I survived.
In the current issue of Magnificat, Peter Cameron wrote in his editorial-
“Lent is the season of conversion. But, more than just ‘changed behavior,’ conversion is really about being. For in the depths of myself I am sure that I am meant to be more than I am. I have a potential that I have not yet realized. There is more to me than I know. “
I hope to use this to really grow in this Lenten season and also maybe find out more about me and that is the challenge – making this actually happen and by not just doing certain things but being a certain way. More patient would be nice. We’ll see what happens.
So this year, I decided to mix things up. There is the obligatory ‘giving something up’. Last year I gave up pasta. It was hard. This year it will be harder as I’ve given up chocolate. Now, before you go “Chocolate – whatever!” this is a BIG deal for me. I don’t drink coffee, tea or a lot of soda. My drink is chocolate milk. That is right.. this isn’t even about eating chocolate. It is about drinking it. I keep my choccy milk glasses in the freezer and nearly every night I have some milk with a teaspoon or two of quik in it and drink it in a huge gulp. Now, at fabulous-new-job, I have got in to the habit of having a hot chocolate every morning. I have grown up drinking quik basically every day – being without it will be one of the hardest things I have done and already tonight I am sitting here yearning for my icy milk.
Giving something up is good and all but I also wanted to do something else. So Bill and I are doing a Lenten course that Queen of All Saints are running that is based on Thomas Merton’s Bridges to Contemplative Living. We had our first class last night and it was excellent and is something I think we will both get a lot out of.
I am also doing something else [insert top secret stuff here] that I will post about towards the end of Lent and also hoping to start and finish and certain craft project that I will also post more about.
I know I haven’t blogged for a while but suffice to say it is for a good reason. My new job has been amazing and I am so so so happy being back in a library environment and working with really wonderful people. Also, life itself has just been fantastic and busy. I am sad that winter is ending but excited for what spring has to offer. I have been feeling amazingly fortunate and lucky and super happy and all of those good feelings lately – if 2011 is going to continue like this it is going to be an absolutely fantastic year!