Ash Wednesday

I used to avoid the Ash Wednesday services. Perhaps not consciously, but they never particularly interested me. I guess when you are not into the partying mentality of carnivale, then the Lenten fast holds little value.

However, this year I am trying to approach it differently. The older I get the more I realize how much I have and how much I take for granted. I remember lying in the hospital after losing our triplets, still unable to have regular foods, thinking that I would never take a simple thing like having a coffee and doughnut for granted. And, yet, I do. So, I am forsaking much of the novelty of eating for forty days in the hopes of appreciating and better cultivating my abundance.

I've come to appreciate the seasons of life and liturgy. There is some truth in realizing that those delicious licorice jelly beans of Easter taste so much better when you haven't had them in a while.


So, like the cocoon from which the butterly emerges, I pray to emerge from Lent with a fresher, truer perspective.