Thursday, March 6, 2014

Feasting, Fasting, Forgiving

Yesterday was hit and miss on the Lenten challenge front. It was easy enough to feel solemn and repentant with the snow falling again--Mother Nature's punishments were motivation to be a better person, if she would only let us have spring. And yet, forgiveness came slowly while irritation flashed.

There were only several occasions where forgiveness would have been the right course of action, but each time my instinct was to get annoyed. Traffic, unreasonable requests, bus schedules...these are the things that irked me most yesterday. As the day went on, I recognized my anger quicker and could then rein it in, but forgiveness is still something I need to practice.

I also did a modified fast yesterday, which for me meant no snacking. This was extremely hard because there's a lot of snack foods at work. Instead, I focused on the tasks at hand, and when those were done, I created more tasks for myself. I found that if I kept myself busy I didn't think so much about how hungry I was. Even without snacks, I still ate four times: three small meals throughout the day and one huge meal at night when I got home. I'm a grazer at heart, but hopefully I can keep my snacking to a minimum and put my energy into complete meals.

Today is already more spring-like: the sun is out, I can hear birds, and it might reach 30 degrees. I'm going to hold fast to those things to keep me in a cheerier, more forgivable mood.

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