Lent

I was drawn to this article recently, as I pondered what to give up for Lent.

Giving up for Lent was a thing I used to really get into, even though it’s kind of a “Catholic thing” and I have never been Catholic.  As my everyday schedule has become more punishing, however, the idea of adding more self denial and struggle has slowly lost its charm – three small kids, tough job, husband out of town most weeks makes life hard enough.  I used to give up soda, or chocolate, or alcohol, or meat.  But to be honest, I don’t drink a lot of soda or eat much chocolate these days, and though I drink a glass of wine most nights, it’s just one.  I don’t feel like my once-a-week M&Ms or nightly glass of wine are traps that me from virtue or the life I really want.  And with my job’s long hours, I am already struggling to make three meals a day every day for five people (we go out maybe once a week – Saturday lunch, usually – and other than that I have to plan, grocery shop, and cook).  We don’t eat pork or red meat anymore.  I can’t imagine adding the burden of making all of those meals meatless, or worse, having to make myself a meatless alternative in addition to whatever I’m making the kids.  We don’t have any extraneous spending to curtail – I don’t go shopping, online or otherwise, except for groceries.  Life isn’t perfect and I am not the poster child for self control and self denial, but I am sort of the poster child for managing a ton of responsibilities with juuuuuuust exactly the right amount of resources and nothing extra.  So in the Lenten season, I struggle to find something “extra” to cut out.

And yet.  Forty days of penance . . . forty days of fasting . . . the concept still kind of appeals to me, especially after the over-the-top festivities of Mardi Gras.  This quote from the article I linked to above was a favorite:

“No act of virtue can be great if it is not followed by advantage for others. So, no matter how much time you spend fasting, no matter how much you sleep on a hard floor and eat ashes and sigh continually, if you do no good to others, you do nothing great.”

Instead of cutting out some foible that keeps my body sluggish or my spirit cluttered, I want to use this Lenten season to turn my gaze outward to others, and ways to make them better.  Not because it’s good for me and makes me a better and more spiritual person, but because it’s good for them.

So here is my Lenten “fast” – a daily act of service (to people other than my children, who receive daily acts of service from me already!)  It could be to write a snail mail letter for a friend, or make a small donation to a charity, or volunteer to spread mulch in a local kids’ playground or pick up litter in our local square on my lunch break.  It can be small or big, but it has to be daily.  I’m busy, but not so busy I can’t be of service to my community.

Forty acts of good.  And then . . . spring.