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Last night was a special treat for my family. I picked up my husband Jermaine and his friend Eric from the Army base and we headed to our pastor’s house to celebrate Pancake Tuesday, or Shrove Tuesday. What made it so special was the sheer fact that Jermaine and I got to see each other during the week! What’s even more exciting, barring any craziness from the Army, we’ll get to do it all over again tonight, only this time we’ll head to church for an Ash Wednesday service.

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2010/feb/10/christians-its-time-give-it-lent/

The evening was truly blissful. The table was all decked out with several kinds of pancakes – crepes, American, buckwheat and oatmeal; lots of yummy toppings – homemade whipped cream, fresh berries, pecans, powdered sugar, lemon juice (for the crepes, I hear), and of course, maple syrup. We had several kinds of juices, wines and even a Mardi Gras cake! Besides my pastor’s family, we didn’t know anyone else, so we got to feast on pancakes with lots of fun new people. There were also several children there, and they all made up some sort of game downstairs. Sadie had a blast!

This morning, as we rolled out of bed, she hugged me sleepily and whispered, “Happy Ash Wednesday.” What a beautiful way to start Lent!

Our family isn’t doing much fasting this year. Usually I have all of these grand plans for what I’m going to give up, but these past 6 months have been so crazy. Having to go every week without seeing my husband while feeling sick and tired all the time seems like enough of a fast to me! And for all I’ve sacrificed, Jermaine has given up even more. He’s in AIT right now (the school that’s teaching him how to do his future job in the Army) and the days are, er, structured, to say the least. Not that we’re complaining. Nay, we’re thrilled to have a steady paycheck and excited about our future together as a military family. Still, it’s hard to contemplate giving up anything else right now.

Still, I love Lent. And one of my New Year’s resolutions is to become more in tune to the church calendar. So, I’ve decided, in keeping with another one of my New Years Resolutions, my Lenten practice this year won’t entail giving anything up, but rather incorporating a spiritual practice that I have done on and off for the past couple years. I am going to recite – in the morning and in the evening at least – the fixed-hour prayer that is laid out in Phyllis Tickle‘s books called The Divine Hours.

My friend Amie first told me about Phyllis Tickle, fixed-hour prayers and spiritual disciplines in general about 3 years ago. Since that time I have been slowly collecting The Divine Hour books – and now I have all three, which span the entire year. Last year I tried to both fast something and incorporate a spiritual practice into my already hectic life (I was about to graduate at the time). It was too much and it didn’t work. So this seems light and beautiful to simply just add fixed-hour prayer for this Lenten season.

What I think is even more exciting is that I have been reading Rest by Keri Wyatt Kent and I just got to the part about rhythm. She talks about how Jesus had this beautiful rhythm that punctuated his life. He went back and forth between periods of being meaningfully engaged (to the point of being tired) and periods of rest and solitude (Rest, p. 132). I am fascinated by rhythm, but in life I often feel like I”m just making noise instead of music. My prayer is that I might use this Lenten season to add a little rhythm to my days.

I would love to hear what you’re giving up, or starting for Lent! Feel free to leave your thoughts and ideas in a comment below.