February 21, 2007
Wednesday
This day snuck up on me. It was printed right on my calendar — Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent. I’d pencilled in the time of the evening service at my church. Still, yesterday, when I visited my Sitemeter page to check traffic, I was puzzled at first by the string of hits on a single page. Since I changed the structure of the Permalink, I don’t see the title anymore in the referral log, just the number. I had to click over to it to see that it was a piece from 1999 entitled “Fat Tuesday,” and the search string that led to the hit was some variation of “Fastnacht Day.”
I’ve been so immersed in the inner world of my characters and the narratives they are playing out that I lost touch with the outer world. That’s a focus I haven’t had since I was turning out work for my American Studies degree in the early 90s.
As it happened, I didn’t get around to having any fastnachts yesterday. I worked all morning to prepare my written comments for the manuscripts that came under discussion last night at my new writers’ group, spent a few hours with a friend who was in town for a meeting, and then went to Lancaster for the writers’ group session. So I came to the table this morning for my C&C (Coffee and Contemplation) just a little off balance with regard to getting my head focused on the spiritual growth matters of Lent.
Back at Holidailies time, I began following the Advent mediations of Father Francis-Maria Salvato, who blogs at The Spiritus Project. He’s writing Lenten messages and meditations now. In today’s, he makes the amazing (to me) observation that Lent can be a season of joy, a season to let go of old ways of perception and move into a new awareness. He urges us to take this time to do something special, to focus our energies on changing an unwanted habit or strengthening a positive one.
A creative energy has been steadily building in me since Christmas. It’s causing me to look in some of the corners of my imagination that have not been illuminated for some time. I am shedding old attitudes and stale rituals.
I am becoming fire.
I have never been so excited about Lent.
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