What I'm giving up for Lent

LENT.  I don't typically take part in Lent...but it seems like this year everybody and their mama is talking about it!  People are giving up Facebook, sugar, TV, cussing, wine...basically anything that isn't easy for a person to give up. And, in case you didn't know, you are sacrificing this luxury in your life as a way to reflect upon the sacrifice Christ made for us on the cross.

No small feat!

I was trying to think about things I could give up for 40 days...knowing FULL well that my personality type is awful at giving things up.  I don't deny myself things I want very well :(  The only reason I've been successful with juicing for breakfast and lunch for so long is because I have tricked myself into thinking that I'm not NOT eating food...I'm treating myself to a luxurious all natural fruit/veg cocktail elixir of the gods!  Yep.

I got to thinking, and here are some things that I could give up for Lent:

Netflix/TV

Juice

Improv

Selfies and shameless plugs.  (Check out the hot new Austin improv duo "Hot Sauce"!)

But I'm not giving any of that up!  Like I said, I can't give things up easily :(

Instead, I'm going to do something inspired from this most spectacular book I have been reading:

In the chapter I'm reading author Pam Grout seeks to prove that everyone and everything in the universe is connected. In quantum mechanics they call this concept "nonlocality."  So, she has you visualize a person you have conflict with and seek to mend your relationship solely by sending them positive thoughts. Uttering no words, you close your eyes and begin meditating on this person. Ignoring your impulses, you imagine this enemy of yours achieving their wildest dreams, winning the lottery, having every blessing bestowed upon them...and imagine yourself being happy about it. That's it.  In doing this practice you change the dialogue in your mind and build a dam between the negativity in your mind and your personal potential for peace. 

I LOVE this idea.  I started last night but I quickly realized I really DON'T have folks I consider enemies! So I ended up thinking about the friends and family I love and visualizing them seeing their wildest dreams come true.  I imagined some of you miraculously healed from illnesses, others of you I saw inheriting fortunes from long lost relatives, a few of you found the loves of your lives, and others I imagined untethered from your current obligations and free to be as adventurous as you seem to want to be.

So that's what I'm doing for Lent. Every night before I go to sleep I'm going to focus and concentrate on a loved family member or friend and wish them all the blessings I can think to send them. It's kind of like a hyper focused prayer time...so I think God would approve of me doing this for Lent.  And I hope you all get to see the effects of these blessings in your lives :)

I'm also going to be more diligent about writing my 2 grandmothers letters more regularly, but that's another thing :)

Here's a quote I liked by Martha Beck, a Harvard scientist, who lived her life quite rigidly until a number of personal crises made her a believer in the interconnectedness of living beings:

"Against all odds, despite everything that works against it on this unpleasant, uncomfortable planet, mothering is here in abundance. You can always find it, if you're smart enough and know where to look.

I have to jettison every sorrow, every terror, every misconception, every lie that stands between my conscious mind and what I know in my heart to be true....I have expanded my reality from a string of solid facts, as narrow, strong, and cold as a razor's edge, to a wild chaos of possibility."

I don't know about you, but I LOVE the wild chaos of possibility ;)