Lent

Meanwhile, four months later...

Lent is upon us. What does Lent mean for someone who isn't even the slightest bit religious? I think Lent is something that non-religious people can use as a time for reflection and self-improvement. It's not just for church anymore, people. The year that my mom died, I spoke to a friend about what Lent meant to her, and what the deal was with giving something up. I always felt it was a bit silly when you heard people say that they were giving up chocolate or macaroni or something like that- as if it was a huge sacrifice to give up one food item for six and a half weeks... (No offense to the macaroni girl) So I thought about what Lent could mean in a non-religious context, and I decided that my mom would have done some good deed each day or done something nice for someone else each day, rather than give something up. She always said "Do something good for the world every day." That first year I wrote a letter each day, and to make myself more organized, I decided ahead of time who the letter would go to each day. It was a great way for me to keep up correspondence and revive the letter in general. With the advent of emailing, texting, tweeting, Facebooking, etc., people just don't write letters anymore. I love getting letters in the mail, and I think people should write them more often. The first year I wrote 40 letters, and then I felt so refreshed after that year that I did it again for the next three years. This year I think I will continue my tradition but I am going to add to it by attempting to write something for this blog each day. I want to get back on the blog horse and contribute something to this blog. I feel the need to talk about my mom and write something about her, so I am going to attempt to write something each day for the duration of Lent. Here goes!