Going to Great Lent...s

as you may or may not know, it's lent. started on ash wednesday, which was just last week (for those of you non-lenters). i have been observing lent for as long as i can remember.

i was raised as a catholic. the typical tri-annual catholic: christmas, new years and easter. and even then it was usually me who was dragging my family to church. i also went to a catholic all girls high school where there was the obligatory chapel on campus and i faithfully attended lunch-time mass on Fridays for at least the last three years of school.

even after renouncing catholocism some years later and eventually becoming a staunch (crazy, left wing) evangelical, born again believer, i continued - for reasons unknown to me - to observe the lenten season. a tradition that, i guess, became a big part of my spirituality. i never did the whole no-meat-fish-on-fridays lent, but i did give up the usual things like chocolate, soda - i think even smoking (back when i used to fumar) - you know that kind of stuff. in more recent times i have gone without TV (an enourmous deal for me), chocolate again (a wicked big deal) and this year... ahhhh, this year - what a gem! guess what i'm going without? added sugar. added sugar? you ask. what does that mean, added sugar? well, it means that i am still eating things like fruit and honey. but no sugar in tea or coffee, no cereal (with sugar - which is every single one worth eating), no yogurt, no granola bars, no cookies (!!!!); more specifically no oreos (double !!!) - nothing at all that has been sweetened.

christian spoke last week about the practice of fasting and how it's really just practicing practicing to do without. so that, according to Dallas Willard", we can be strong and sweet when we have do without. at first i didn't understand what he (christian) meant by "doing through practice that which we couldn't do through direct effort" (slightly paraphrased due to poor memory). but then he opened by trying to juggle (trying being the operative word), spoke and then closed with AJ actually juggling. and i got it! practice for the spiritual things. what a concept! i need to talk more about this but i need to get ready for a birthday party. gotta run. but i'll be back.