Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday and Lent will have begun.
I think I am prepared (if one can be.)
I have my travel kit packed and ready.
I have assembled my reading list.
On my list is some suffering, along with a bright strand of optomisim running throughout.
I am also going to read and practice Sybill MacBeth’s Praying in Color.
Meals have been thought of: tonight we will eat Pancakes for Shrove Tuesday.
I have my stitching project ready to begin (stitching through Lent something I started last year and want to continue this year.)
Tomorrow we will be marked by the ashes of last years palm fronds and then we will begin our journey and walk into the desert for 40 days.
This year, for me, walking into the desert means leaving two habits behind. One I will share with you and one I am keeping to myself. Not because I don’t want to share it, but because my sharing is part of it.
The one I will share with you is this: I am not going to purchase anything for our home until Easter. No decorations, no accessories, no pillowcases or mixing bowls and vintage plate. No chalkboards or side tables or throw rugs. Nothing thrifted, or vintage or new. No dollar tree do-dads. No garage sale finds.
Instead I am going to use what I have: The sewing machine and fabric to make pillows, the old wood and existing stack of vintage plates to make wall-art, the boxes of do-dads I still have not unpacked since the cancled move. These things are more than plenty.
Ofcourse I know that as soon as I post this the most perfect pair of chairs for the dining room will magiclly show up Craigslist. Cause that is how this goes.
So I am all packed and ready to go.
Let it be.
Lent is here.
I am also following lent.