Maybe one of the practices of Lent needs to include the practice of figuring out how a day wholly consumed by anything but personal reflection may also be called a Lenten practice.
I woke early to shower and pack for my 1.5 hour drive to a weekend gig for work. I spent the day talking with people about their hang ups and heartaches, and I spoke with people who loved the people with the hang ups and heartaches and others who cared for them. Before all was said and done, I had spent 12-13 hours interacting with, discussing, considering the stories of others and how their stories intersected with the stories of those who love them.
More often than not, the primary person - the focus of my attention - shared a completely different story than the one who loves them. The one loving her or him clueless to the hurt and heartache, astounded by what s/he heard.
Now I sit here considering how this day may inform a Lenten practice or be one in itself.
Maybe the lesson is more about surrender: Surrendering a day to engage others, a person's willingness to surrender his or her story to me, surrendering how I thought a day may unfold to how it actually did unfold, surrendering to someone else's truth even if it conflicts with one's own understanding. . .
And that is the Lenten practice - surrender - both a giving up and an opening up entwined in perpetual reaching toward the Mystery.
And Love?
I'd say when it gives life, it is a mutual surrender. I to my Beloved and my Beloved to me.
Beyond that, I'd need to be more rested to speculate, so until Monday (Sundays don't "count" in Lent). . .good night.
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