Friday Five~Mid Lent check-in

Can we really be half way through Lent already?

1. Did you give up, or take on, anything special for Lent this year?

I had/have a very complete plan for Lenten discipline this year that ranged from giving up Diet Coke to taking a walk every day to going to bed earlier to praying more.

2. Have you been able to stay with your original plans, or has life gotten in the way?

I have to say in all honesty that I have failed miserably in keeping this discipline and was already thinking about how to pretty much start over.

I gave up giving up diet coke because when I have a headache (and I've been fighting off migraines) it makes me feel better. The weather has been so crappy much of the time that regular walks haven't happened. Going to bed early? Ha! Just look at when I post most of the time! I am getting more sleep, but I'm not making it to bed by 11 like I planned. Praying is going better, but again, not as much as I hoped for.

Can I plead stress and work overload? I know it's a poor excuse, and part of the point (for me at least) of having a Lenten discipline is to be intentional about working through the stress and living the way I am called to be living. Not working so much this year, and perhaps that is something I should think more about.

3. Has God had any surprising blessings for you during this Lent?

Pretty much every day--and that is the upside of this Lent. A surprise visit home from my older daughter, reconnecting with my stepdaughter, the incredible support and generosity of my clergy coach and his wife, kind words from people who know something is going on but aren't sure what, wonderful feedback from people in the Lenten class I'm leading, windows opening when doors close.

4. What is on your inner and/or outer agenda for the remainder of Lent and Holy Week?

I've been thinking a great deal about reconciliation and forgiveness, and I'd like to continue to work on that. I'm rethinking how I want this Lent to finish up. I have a lot coming up in the next few weeks including a road trip (work related) and a heavy Lenten schedule. I'm looking forward to Holy Week, but feeling a bit frustrated because the detailed plan I worked out when i thought my boss would be on sabbatical has been thrown a bit into disarray since he'll be here.

5. Where do you most long to see resurrection, in your life and/or in the world, this Easter?

Last year on Easter Day my granddaughter was born, and this year at the Easter Vigil I'll have the privilege of baptizing her. My older daughter has good news of her own, but it's not mine to tell-yet. The Kid will be graduating and going on to college--all that is resurrection--new life--for me. But beyond that I long for for resolution to the place of limbo I'm in right now. I want to look forward to the new things that are in store for me, wherever they are meant to be.

Bonus: Share a favorite scripture, prayer, poem, artwork, or musical selection that speaks Lenten spring to your heart.

A white post will only continue to be a white post
if it is painted every year;
otherwise it would become a black post.
Our lives are like that.
We need to share in an annual retraining period.
Otherwise our souls become tarnished,
our prayers mere words, our service selfish,
and our giving trivial.
Lent is a time fo renewal, of retraining,
of relearning

~G. K. Chesterton