One week down

Okay, so it's one and one-half weeks down. Whatever.

I was going to just post "never mind about that whole Lenten journey thing!", but thought better of it. Truth to tell, there is not much journeying worth telling anyone about yet. Not even Chad, who gets to hear the most boring and minute details of my life.

Anyway! I'm training for another half-marathon, otherwise I would have done the traditional fast. (Next year, I'm going to cut my running down during Lent and go for it.) Since I can't do that, I have instead opted for a variation thereof: I am abstaining from all animal products, but eating my usual six meals a day. (I eat like a hobbit; what can I say?) In addition, I am abstaining from sweets, but that has become such a normal part of my Lenten experience that I hardly feel that it counts any longer. Besides that, I am still eating fibre bars, so I do have some degree of "sweet" in my diet.

I used to be a vegetarian before I got married, but I thought it was unfair to my husband to make him go veg as well (it was not at all for conscience reasons that I went veg myself). Now, I'm doing my best to relearn, very quickly, all that stuff I knew about vegetarian living. With the added bonus that it's actually vegan living I'm after. And, this time around I'm a runner with actual goals in mind, so I have to pay a lot more attention to my protein intake. So, I'm having to put some thought and effort into what I am eating. This does serve the purpose of bringing my thoughts back to God, and I've found it's a lot easier to do something for someone else than it is to just do it for one's self.

This week has been crazy-hectic. We keep our lifestyle quiet and un-busy for a number of reasons, but sometimes our culture's busyness sneaks in our door and ambushes us. Therefore, it's been harder for me to focus on the reasons for fasting, let alone work in extra prayer or Bible reading time (I know, it's my own fault!).

However, there have been some side effects: It seems that making a change in one area of my life does affect the others. Even though I haven't made any conscious decisions regarding my speech, I noticed that I was choosing my words with more care this week. I don't know where that came from, but it is a habit I'd like to pursue.

So, I have a long way to go. Easter is still five weeks away. I enter this new week (and seemingly, this new time zone), with more purpose and intent than I had last week.