Easter weekend is finally upon us. HINT: If you don’t have an Easter bonnet to wear, you can wear your Easter basket. I have my trusty Snoopy and Woodstock Tie o’ the Day to wear, too. Also, please note that the only Peeps invited to our house for the festive Spring weekend are these which wear Bow Ties o’ the Day. I bought these Peeps a few years ago, and they are now as hard as my noggin. (You might not yet know this almost-fact, but I firmly believe Peeps can and will physically outlast Twinkies, in terms of decomposition time.)
Please, oh, please, oh, please, my friends, enjoy your party weekend responsibly! Worship responsibly, as well. Call me if you need a designated driver. 👮🏻♀️
Popcorn Tie o’ the Day is here to signal that Lent is over. Trust me—there’s already ice cream in the freezer. I managed to stick to my Lent goal most days, but not all. I chose sugar over my goal on a few occasions. I give myself a failing grade on my Lent behavior this year.
In general, I can do anything I set my mind to do. I make a decision, and I have follow-through. I do whatever it takes to endure. I stick. Except, apparently, when it comes to giving up sugary, salty, junky food for Lent. Oh, I was perfect about it for the first week. Not eating non-nutritional food was no bigly deal for me. But then it was my birthday, so I gave myself a day off to eat birthday desert when Suzanne took me out to dinner. I know myself well, and I could have told you from the outset that would be disastrous for my Lent sacrifice success.
Seriously, if I can rationalize one acceptable reason to excuse myself from my stated goal—like “it’s ok, it’s just for my birthday”—I can find a million other reasons to alter my course. The “rules” of Lent don’t help either. Yup, I blame Lent for my weak-ass failure. Why? Because during Lent, according to Lent’s own rules, all Sundays are free days. You heard me: during the six weeks of Lent, on Sundays you are free to give up giving up. The Sabbath is always a day of celebration, whether it’s Lent or not. Who am I to argue with a day off doing something I don’t want to do anyway?
But that’s a cop-out. The truth is I messed up and rationalized my way into failure, knowing exactly what I was doing all along the way. I allowed myself to become a walking rationalization. I put myself before the idea of sacrifice. We sacrifice because sometimes it’s the thing we’re asked to do, regardless of how convenient or inconvenient it is to do so. I was content to be a happy asterisk during Lent 2022. I hope I will utilize a different, more positive, approach to Lent next year. I am a person who is striving to be better than an asterisk.
We all have to look at ourselves. We have to be self-reflective and turn a critical eye to who and what we are. Indeed, we have to judge ourselves at times. I don’t know about you, but my worst enemy has always shown up in whatever mirror I look into. The trick for each of us is to figure out how to live in such a way that we can reconcile the soul we are with the image we cast in the mirrors we pass. Oh, it sounds so simple.
