Found my thing

I read a good article yesterday that pretty much sums up my past few years of thinking on the Lenten season.  I saw too many people "giving up" things for the wrong reasons, I grew weary of the emptiness of the idea, so I decided to "add" something instead.  Only I failed at the adding part and at the end of the season probably wasn't much better off than the guy who gave up sweets so he could use Lent as an excuse to diet.  (The article is much more well written than that and definitely worth a read.)  And the honest truth is that I've been too weak and/or exhausted to do anything really spirit enhancing.  Last night I made my Lenten resolve and I'm happy with it.  It strikes the right mix of sacrificing (my time) while helping me deepen my relationship (with God and with the people around me).  I hope.  It also fits well into this new non 9 to 5 lifestyle and will (hopefully) help me put my priorities in the right place.  (Are you ready for The Big Reveal?!)

I'm going to go to daily mass.  (Was that a bit of a letdown?  Did you expect something monumental? :))

This is what I hope a) It will force me to get up and moving at a set time.  While this takes away from my glorious lazy mornings with my babies, I think it'll be a good thing overall.  b) It will start my day from a place of prayer and faith.  I had originally thought about saying a decade of the rosary every morning, but there wasn't enough accountability in that.  I could see myself too easily neglecting it. c) It will get me connected to people outside of my little world and open my eyes beyond real estate and babies.  It's too easy for me to get focused on me me me.  At church this morning I had some nice passing conversations with the (mostly elderly) crowd that helped expand my perspective for the day.  As a result, I was less stressed.  Additionally, the homily was about taking a stance on social issues like minimum wage, pollution, etc.  I rarely think about these things in the melee that is Team Shea, and thinking about them is definitely good for the spirit (and my place as a human in society).

So there it is.  Are any of you readers doing a Lenten thing?  Have you been successful in the past?  Is anybody actually reading this anyway?

Comments

  1. Unknown12:45 PM

    of course i'm reading this. but have failed miserably on my Lenten self-improvement promises

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Deliberate. The adjective, not the verb.

I'm getting so excited for our move.  SO EXCITED!  I'm going to finally spend adult time with my parents (which I'm sure will be infuriating and full of unintended consequences, but also awesome.)  They will be a daily (or maybe weekly) part of our lives for as long as we have them.  This is a deliberate choice, maybe a crazy choice, but one that I embrace with the little knowledge I have of the actuality of it.  I may miss the weather, but life is about people to me, not things. I'm going to live 0.4 miles away from my best friend, and 3.7 miles away from my sister.  I'm going to do real estate.  Matt is going to do a business adventure with his best friend.  This is a deliberate move.  This is a deliberate life.  This is a rebuttal to all the times people say, "I wish I could... but I can't."  Because the thing is, "There's enough time in  your life for everything important."  You are given only one life on this plane...
Read more

The Perfect Social Media Life

Watching a little Gary Vee this morning and his rant on caring about what other people think.  (Everything he does is a rant.  But an awesome rant.  I As intended, it caused me to reflect on my social media persona and think about why I post.  Honestly, I post because it's a bit of a yearbook for me.  I love documenting the great stuff, because my brain forgets (in about 0.2 seconds), and I especially love when Facebook reminds me of my memories.  I'm not trying to convince the world that I have the perfect life - I DO have the perfect life.  It's full of family and friends and experiences.  Shelter and safety and amazing food.  In fact, sometimes I DON'T post because I don't want people to compare their lives and feel lacking.  I just want to remember this amazingness for the days when it's not amazing.  Gary Vee posits that we post fantastic stuff because we crave other peoples' validation on our daily lives.  But I know eve...
Read more

All sorts of congratulations

Image
We'll start with family... The event of the season! Lisa and Tom's wedding was this past weekend and I'm exhausted, but in a good way. My family (God bless 'em) can be so tiring... :) The wedding itself though was a phenomenal success. We got everything set up in time, the key players all showed up for the ceremony (though my parents were almost late because Colby threw a massive temper tantrum about putting on his suit), and the weather was perfect. They did a tropical/bbq type theme at an old estate (Joanna Furnace) with an accordian playing DJ. He was actually pretty good :) Saturday morning we girls went to get our hair/makeup/lives done, and Shakes was nice enough to accompany us and take pictures. Link is on the top left :) We made it to the church about a half hour before the ceremony to change and hang out, only to realize that by putting our dresses in the dryer to de-wrinkle, they had been almost ruined by a wayward dryer sheet. Other women would have panicked...
Read more