Today is Shrove Tuesday.
It’s also called Mardi Gras and Fat Tuesday.
Today we traditionally feast on what we will deprive ourselves of during the coming six weeks until Easter.
Symbolically we eat pancakes with lemon and sugar, (syrup for the American contingent) bacon or sausage…breakfast for dinner.
Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent.
This means Easter is early and it may still be chilly!.
I try to set apart this period of time so that it doesn’t look like the rest of the year.
Then, when Holy week draws around, I am spiritually ready to walk the last few days with Christ.
By the time the bells and Alleluias of Easter Sunday sound I feel a great relief that I have a Savior who is my light along the way.
Sometimes my new habit or discipline lingers after the 6 weeks.
I gave up sugar in my tea and coffee as a child, and found I liked it better.
I started going to mass on Wednesdays, deep into my parenting phase, and found it naturally fit my schedule and draped itself comfortably around my shoulders.
But more often I happily go back to my life the way it was…which makes the very pause all the more worthwhile.
I found that as a young family this setting apart disrupted our whole lifestyle!
Fridays was the day we set aside to eat out with the children. Just something simple that they looked forward to as a special treat.
Meatless Fridays during Lent put a stop to that!
What fun is going to McDonald’s and not having a hamburger or chicken nuggets?
Or having to forfeit the pepperoni on your pizza?
Instead we attended an event at the church on Fridays where we would gather for soup and sandwich followed by Stations of the Cross.
The children embraced the break in routine with enthusiasm. It was a time to socialize and a way to add a devotion while we were at it.
This year, with empty nest and a new church everything is different and we will join in the corporate marking of the season as we are able.
At home Hubs and I have decided to add hospitality as a way to actively reach out to those who very often get overlooked in the surge to serve communities.
We won’t be doing a bible study.
We will be telling stories and perhaps catch the hand of God at work in all our lives.
We will be drinking some wine,
Eating some good wholesome food with or without meat,
And during the gatherings we’ll slowly grow closer as a group who share the same road,
the same joys and woes,
The same Creator.
Isn’t that what life is all about?
Well hello there! My name is Vivienne McNeny.
I am an empty nester exploring life as a Boomer…you could say I'm happily Boomering along!
As a homeschooling Mum I have finally quit the job of role model and mentor to my four children. I do what I want to do, eat when I feel like it, enjoy life with my blue eyed cowboy and clean my house once a month or so whether it needs it or not!
In true English form I write about the emergence of my true identity now that I can no longer hide behind my children as their Mum.
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