Tommorrow marks the beginning of Lent, as anyone who is a Christian and -unlike me- is not a non-denominationalist should know. (I'm guessing that Eastern Orthodox guys are all screwed up too, due to their screwy week-late Easter celebrations and all.)
But I don't know what to fast this year. Food as wholesale (even for, say, daylight) is out of the question. Maybe I can, but I tend to get short during those periods. And I don't need to get any more impatient or angry. Not at work.
Or home.
Maybe I can fast from work.
Ok, what about coffee? I didn't do any prep on that. I dunno. Sounds sketchy. I never feel like I get enough sleep.
I wonder how many wimpy Christians (like me) refrain from coffee drinking during this period. Must put Starbucks and the big coffee international corporations on a dip. They refer to Lent as "the Lean Months." I can hear trembling in an office in Seattle, "We're going to have to temporarily lay off about 1/3 of our work force for forty days. Slowly bring them back during the week after Easter."
I need to blog more, not less. So that's out of the question.
I don't watch tv, except for The Office, which I catch on my iPod.
What's your choice? What are you Lenting this year? Are you? What should I Lent?
For we Orthodox, Lent began yesterday, which was the first day we were supposed to abstain from dairy products. And we've been abstaining from meat since the Monday before.
ReplyDeleteI was under the impression that the Western and Eastern churches were celebrating Easter/Pascha at the same time this year, though. Our calendars seem to coincide every three years or so. It was last year that our Pascha came one week after your Easter -- and the year before that, our Pascha came over a month after your Easter.
There's also the idea of taking on something for Lent - some act of service or a spriritual discipline that you do not normally engage in. I like that idea and I'm doing that.
ReplyDeletepeter,
ReplyDeletethanks for dropping by.
yeah, my church is next to an American (nee Russian) Orthodox church and i remember that happening a couple years ago. but maybe i just tend to remember the week-after celebrations b/c it seems more of an anomoly.
is it my impression, or do the Orthodox tend to be more in tune with the Jewish Passover feasts? someone tried to explain this to me, but i think i got scared by their big and new words and went to look for my rubber ball.
no dairy or meat?? talk about sacrifice! what's left to eat?
art,
i always thought that was as a response to the fasting, the adding on of a spiritual discipline (whether wholesale or more intensity). ie, i'm planning on doing more prayer every time i feel the urge to get some coffee.
and, yes, i went for the wimpy. the whole season kind of lept up on me. maybe next year i'll fast from sugar or somethin'.
I thought about giving up meat or beer, but then I decided to go with eating out.
ReplyDeleteyeah, beer would be too easy. there's no football games now. and i don't care for the taste of it.
ReplyDeletemeat would be cool if i were more conscious about animal-consciousness. no, wait, what am i saying??
eating out is a good sacrifice, esp. for busy people. gave me an idea: maybe next year i should try to just home-cook everything. from scratch. straight off the farm. i say as i put a reggios frozen pizza in the oven.
so...what'd you decide on?
ReplyDelete