Stumbling into Lent

Lent is off to a bit of a rocky start here. No surprise since it's the first time in my life I've paid any attention to Lent whatsoever. (Long story short: I grew up believing religious faith was delusion. I fell in love with a man who has faith. He's never tried to persuade me. It may be catching.)

Anyway, I just ate the rest of my son's "prayer pretzel" for lunch. At breakfast-time he ate two candies from the purple goody bag he got at church last night. This is the first time in his life that he's had candy at breakfast, and it's the first day of Lent.

Should I tell our lovely Catechism teacher that it's really not necessary, and perhaps counterproductive, to bundle the prayer cards and Jesus magnets with lollipops and gummy bears? On Shrove Tuesday no less! [Shrove Tuesday (a.k.a. Mardi Gras) is the day before Lent. Ritual consumption on the eve of a period of abstention and religious observance.]
I wonder if she expected him to eat it all before bed, or was this just the ultimate Lenten challenge for a three-year-old?

I guess I failed the parental pretzel challenge.

Well, I'm thinking about Lent now, aren't I?

Sorting

It's been a few months, but here I am, writing. I'm not sure why this is the moment. It could be related to my plan to clean my home from top to bottom today, and my desire to delay such plan. But I'm perfectly capable of procrastinating in other ways.

My dilemma is this. I want to write. I want to really explore some issues, some trickier than others. At the lighter end of the spectrum I want to guide myself through some should-be embarrassingly simple processes, like creating and keeping an organized home.

In other words, I want to write for myself, to put my inner-most thoughts into words, to reflect upon them. So the logical thing would seem to be to write in a private diary, not a public blog.

Yet I'm drawn to write in this forum. Why, I ask myself, would I want to do such a crazy thing? The answer I suppose is that I just might encounter some kindred souls. I have been so happily surprised to discover this intimate, supportive world. That and Blogger's handy formatting and pretty colours.

And yet, I've resisted it. Ultimately, I think I need to write for my eyes only.