Keeping Lent - Ash Wednesday

Today marks the beginning of Lent, a time of preparation, fasting and prayer observed by the Western churches. The word Lent comes from the Anglo-Saxon word for spring. The Lenten season lasts 40 days as a symbol of the Biblical traditions found in the Old and New Testaments of preparation and prayer before special occasions. There are six Sundays during Lent which are not counted in the season of Lent.

In the early Church ashes were sprinkled on the head of penitents as a token of repentance of sin. Repentance means denial and some people use the time of Lent to deny themselves of something. They say they are giving up “chocolate” for example for Lent. But for me it means a chance to remind myself that I am a child of God.

Lent is a time for me to put away negative thoughts and focus on the positive. Jesus said, “You are light for all the world.” (Matthew 5:14) Turning from the darkness and toward the light of God, I realize that I am strong, positive, powerful, wise, loving, fearless, free spirit, and the perfect child of God.

Keeping Lent this way will prepare me mentally, physically, and spiritually to rise out of the old and into the new. Each morning I plan to focus on this 40-day journey with prayer and meditation. Today I remind myself that the light of God surrounds me reflecting back into the lives of the people I touch as Jesus calls me to do, “As a lamp you must shed your light among your fellows….,” Matthew 5:16.

Highs and Lows

Yesterday was a day of ups and downs, or highs and lows, or good job Hayden and no, no, no Hayden. At almost a year-old, my grandson is experimenting with touch and tastes anything he can get his hands on. Yesterday, it was my philodendron plants, scattered throughout my house most on the floor or at his eye-level. The one in the hallway is almost bare now, thanks to Hayden’s pruning. But I’m grateful that only one leaf made into his mouth, but unfortunately I didn’t know it until he puked it up later. And you would think that would have stopped him from pulling the leaves off the plants but it was fun and he kept doing it and I kept saying, “no, no, no,” but he’d wrinkle up his eyebrows, pout his lips, and look at me with those big blue eyes and my heart would melt. But I can’t let him eat plants so, instead of battling him I moved all the plants out of his reach. (It was a learning experience for the both of us.)

As rewarding as it is – taking care of my grandson, that was not my high or low for the day. I would have to say that my high was getting not one but two telephone calls from strangers, one a local TV personality and the other a local businessman. Both wanted my help with two different things, but both wanted to pick my brain thanks to writing the history book on the Town of Signal Mountain. One is considering a book of his own and wanted my advice and the other wanted to know how I secured all the images used in our book and wanted suggestions on how he could secure some as well. It was sometime in late 2008, just after our book was published that a fellow author in the Chattanooga Writers Guild asked my advice and after a couple of hours over a cup of coffee (or two), she made a proposal to Arcadia and her book was published last month. (Maybe I should contact Arcadia Publishing and see if they want to hire me?)

And then there is my low for the day and this is hard to write. I arrived at my CWG general meeting which is held at the downtown library in Chattanooga to find two police cars and a couple of officers with two women standing over a homeless woman (I’m assuming that) in a wheel chair. The woman was obviously not mentally balanced and wanted to go to the hospital. However, the other two women were either trying to convince the officers to call an ambulance or vice versa. However, according to the off-duty officer working as a guard at the library, the ambulance would not come because the hospital refused her due to her “playing wolf.” The bottom line, I left the meeting and she is sitting outside, no coat, no hat, just a blanket wrapped around her and screaming, “M ‘am” over and over as I approach her.

I did not ignore her and said yes, but then she asked me to wheel her up to the door. I refused. That was my low. What possessed me to walk away from this woman? Of course I paid the price for it, with nightmares and waking with a terrible headache. Every morning I affirm that I am divinely inspired to right action. I knew that she could wheel herself up to the door and what she really wanted was my attention and yet I denied her of it. And it hit me this morning when I forgave myself for being selfish and ignoring her, that, isn’t that what we do every day to people in our own lives?

What was the real reason Hayden was picking off all the leaves of my philodendrons? To get his Mimi’s attention. That’s what we all want in life - to have someone notice us, need us, protect us, watch over us, but most of all love us.