A Few Days Into Lent

As I mentioned here a few years ago, when I was a kid most of my friends were Catholic and were obligated to give something up for Lent. It seemed that was all they talked about for those six weeks before Easter. These days, I don’t hear anyone mention it, but surely someone out there, devote Catholic or not, does something every day throughout Lent to remind themselves of the suffering that Jesus endured for us. I hope so at least.

I’ve been thinking about it for a while – what should I give up this year? Something challenging like chocolate (which I have done multiple times)? Something easier like snacking between meals? Something less tangible like thinking badly of others?

A few years ago, an acquaintance sent me a card a few weeks before Easter saying that she was spending the forty days sending a card each day to someone she respected or admired or who just might need a thinking of you card. That sounded like a neat idea, then as now.  Then the other day, someone on Facebook asked what people do to grow closer to Jesus during Lent. One of the responses was to literally give something up each day, find something around the house each day that you no longer use or need and throw it out or donate it to charity. Simplify your living space. Or even better, simply simplify your life.

I’ve taken all of those thoughts into consideration and here is what I’ve decided to do in honor of Lent this year.

First, because it would be time-consuming and mind-numbing to go around the house each day choosing one thing to discard, I will instead gather an entire box or bag full of junk once a week to take to Goodwill or St Vincent’s. Or unfortunately throw out because I actually do have a lot of junk around here.

Two years ago I made a list of all the people from my past who I have lost touch with and started trying to track them down. I found the obituary of one of them and another one died suddenly before I got around to sending him a note. I did send a letter to one person from college who I found on-line and he even wrote me back. But there are still ten names on that list and I’m going to try to track down every one of them before Easter and send them each a letter.    

In addition, I’m giving up Facebook. I know, what? Looking at the statistics for this blog, I realize that most of you come here from the link I post on Facebook. I post it to other social media as well, but not nearly as many of you come here from those sites. It’s all Facebook for my followers. So, yes, I will still post my blogs for all of you to find and follow. And I will open my personal Facebook page when I am on-line but only to see if anyone is commenting on those few links or mentioning me by name on some other post. I can’t afford to be a total hermit, but I need to stop letting social media suck the life right out of me.

I don’t know. I know that back in the day, when my Catholic friends were told they had to choose something to give up eating or doing from Ash Wednesday until Easter morning, the premise was to suffer like Jesus for those six weeks. But I don’t think it should be about suffering as much as about realizing what matters in this life and what doesn’t. All those posts and random thoughts that everyone puts on Facebook as well as all the clothes in my closet and junk sitting around my house really don’t amount too much, not as much as old college roommates and former co-workers.   

What else is important? Spending time with family and friends – in person, not on-line. Enjoying your favorite clothes that you wear all the time instead of those dresses you wear once a year. Owning possessions which have a story to tell instead of being things which take up space on a wall or a floor. Finding peace in the little things. Living a simple life. Practicing all that for the six weeks of Lent, and then holding onto it for the rest of the year.