Lent

Lent. May have to borrow some of it. From that place I knew as a child. A Catholic kid back when the flag and the cross meant good things and made me proud.

Lent. It was always my favorite season. It was Holy in ways bigger than I understood then and even more important now. The sweet feel of self discipline…a wonderful brick in the foundation of growth. Rituals. Ceremonies. Hiding things in plain sight so we appreciate them when we let ourselves see what is already there. Kneeling. Crawling. Stations of the Cross. Incense. Somber and pious people focused on making it through to the Resurrection. Metaphoric. Meteoric. Heroic. Such wonderful times. Each day a day of more holiness and increasing insights. It was more than giving up candy and cake. It was doing with less. It was celebrating doing without so that we understood what we had and could do without just because we were stronger than habit, custom, and comfort. Suffering is important…..doing is important. A choice of embracing our mettle. Suffering for the noble cause of honing ourselves. Proving something to ourselves that we need to know. Remembering how strong we are. Lent was our time to prove to ourselves that we would and that we could.

Lent. Proving we could change. Proving we would change. Actually doing it, even for a finite period. Enough time to know we had an out……salvation awaiting. We eased into Lent and had the end in sight when we struggled. We had the end of the trials and tribulations right there to ensure we stayed with it. Lent was like that. It gave us reason to change. To improve. To sacrifice. To endure. To show we were more than creature comforts and bad habits that we knew we were better off without anyway.

Lent. Lent was the time we remind ourselves not to be lazy. Lazy in what we thought about and did each day. We brought our spiritual connection from that once a week thing to an everyday thing. The offering of self brought us together as a community of doers. A community of people willing to break their routine to be better about choices that we made and lived each day.

Lent. We can use a little Lent right about now. We can use a lot of Lent right about now. We need to remember that we can and should and then actually do things. We need to remind ourselves that our spirituality is an every day thing and that we can change in important ways……inside. Forever.

Lent….it is for all of us. Happy Ash Wednesday, Citizens.