Lenten Writing.

The season of Lent is upon us all.  For many that means denying yourself something you reallyreally enjoy (chocolate, potato chips, television, alcohol, Facebook, or other vices) as a method of removing obstacles between yourself and the life you want to have (or the life that you think God(de) wants you to have).  I think this is the wrong way of going about it, because it puts all the energy into thinking about what you are denying.  If you want to remove the obstacles between yourself and the life you want, then you should put your energy into adding things to your life to move toward that goal.  By concentrating on your goal, and putting energy into it, you naturally move away from what is keeping you from it.  In other words, put so much virtu (greek word for excellence) into your life that the vice has no room to grow.

Hm... perhaps an analogy (parable) would be helpful?  Okay, imagine that you are a juggler.  You are juggling away with 3 balls (pins, clubs, scarves, whatever) in a regular pattern.  Another person (since Lent/ the Spirit could be seen as an outside force) starts throwing additional balls into your pattern.  You have three choices: either to assimilate the additional ball into your juggling pattern (going from 3 balls to 4 and so on), to drop one of your original balls and carry on with the new one, or to let the new ball bounce off your head and ignore it completely.  The first two outcomes are the purpose of Lent: either you add the new thing to your life and drop something else, or you assimilate it and continue on--recognizing that your pattern and your attention have shifted.

I have long had sort of a very back-burner pipe dream of making myself a writer.  I happen to think that I am decently good at it, and have ideas that are worth communicating.  But one cannot be a writer without (drumroll please) actually sitting my lazy butt down and writing.  Much like an actor needs to rehearse or a pitcher needs to practice, so does anyone who wants to write need to exercise their writing skills by doing.  So, I am taking this Lent as an opportunity to set myself the goal of writing daily (even if it turns into blithering drivel!!) and see where it takes me.

My hope for this activity of Lent is that I do not just let this activity bounce off my head and ignore it--which is where all of you who are so very kindly still reading come in.  I want you to keep me honest and keep throwing balls at me.  If you haven't seen something come through in a while, please feel free to chuck something at me to get me going again.

Thank you, and a blessed Lent unto you all.

Sarah