Facebook and Lent

What is Lent?

I asked Google. Cause a) Google would know and b) I figured it would give me the most concise answer.

According to Google, “Lent is the period of 40 days which comes before Easter in the Christian calendar. Beginning on Ash Wednesday, Lent is a season of reflection and preparation before the celebrations of Easter. By observing 40 days of Lent, Christians replicate Jesus Christ’s sacrifice and withdrawal into the desert for 40 days.”

As you all know by now, I gave up Facebook for the season of Lent. 40 days of not reading posts. 40 days of keeping thoughts to myself. 40 days of not seeing all the fabulous things happening in your lives. 40 days of not seeing the challenging days. It’s not on the same scale of sacrifice as withdrawal into the desert for 40 days, but I have to admit . . . this whole, not logging onto Facebook has been a challenge for me. I would like to say it has given me more free time to complete projects around the home, or to write more, or to read more too, but no.  While all of this is true, I haven’t really taken advantage of this free time, in all those ways. I mean, I could have, and it would have been great to have a clean home, and a bunch of blogs to share at the end of 40 days. But, no, didn’t happen. Won’t be happening. Well, ok, maybe I have read a bit more, cause you know, “It is a truth universally acknowledged,” that I love to read. 

Instead, what has happened, is that I have had a lot of free time to think. And all of those thoughts are stuck in my head. “Don’t panic!” I am not going to share ALL. THE. TOUGHTS. I don’t have that much free time to write, and you don’t have that much free time to read! So today, it’s just a few thoughts about the month. Cause as I write this, I am only 30 days into this challenge. One month. March 1 to March 31. Have you ever paused what you are doing, and really thought about the month that has just passed, and everything that can/did happen in that time frame? I’m pretty sure we fit almost a year of living into the last month.

We began the month on a wonderful note! The oldest participated in his high school One Act performance. For those of you who don’t know what a One Act is, it is a one act play, about 30 minutes long, and performed in front of judges. Based on scores/evaluations a play goes from districts, to regional, to state competitions. To make it a short story about a short play, our high school won the state competition!!! They are officially state champions. Even better, the students brought joy and laughter to all that saw the play. Definitely something we could all use more of.  

Midway through the month, we had a challenge to face. On March 10, my father in law passed away. Once again, a time to tell my crew a loved one has died. Over time, it hasn’t gotten any easier to tell them, and it doesn’t get any easier to say goodbye. What has happened though, is this family has once again shown me how to celebrate life with laughter through tears. Although we were unable to attend the funeral in California, we talked about the lives of Grandpa, Grammy, and, of course, Chris. We talked about how they may all be together again, and what comes next. Cause, there is always a next.

The next, for us, in the case of the end of March, brought us full circle, to joy. We have had birthdays to celebrate!!! Mom and Miss B both had their special days this month. (Because they are ladies, we will not state their ages.) There was quite a bit of smiling and laughing as we planned celebrations on both coasts of the country. Miss B was a bit easier to plan, because she knew about hers. Mom’s party was a bit more involved, as all of the family helped my Dad plan a surprise birthday party for my Mom. The conversations that took place via phone and text, between three states, a handful of adults, and all while keeping it a secret from Mom (still not sure how that happened) will be providing stories for some time!

So here’s the thing, I really don’t know how to end this. When I sat down to write today, I had a completely different topic in mind. I had not intended to give you a brief run down on the month of March. Rather, I wanted to write about music, and what kind of sound track we all have running in the background of our life. I guess things don’t always turn out how we think they will turn out when we begin things. Kind of like me, in giving up Facebook. In my original thought of giving it up for Lent, I wasn’t really approaching it from the religious standpoint. I didn’t think to myself, “I need to reflect.” Rather, I approached it as a challenge. A challenge to back away from something that was taking up a lot of my time; something that kept me distracted from my family; something that kept me from fully appreciating the life that is happening around me. Lent just gave me a definitive amount of time. It has a start and an end date.

But as it turns out, not only was I able to be more present in Life, and truly enjoy my time spent with my family, I have also had time to reflect. I’ve been thinking that Life, like Time is going to continue to move forward. Good days, bad days, life, death, tears, joy, laughter, it’s all going to be there. It’s a matter of whether or not I choose to be present, and make the most of the time I have. It’s a decision we all have to make.