Marking Ash Wednesday

Today was Ash Wednesday - the first day of Lent.

It's a day of prayer and reflection.

One of the images I'm left with from today's 

service is how lent is like a cocoon,

that we can wrap ourselves in it, 

to emerge as a new creation on Easter.

Dear God, help me truly feel your presence, 

wrapped around me like a cocoon wraps around a caterpillar, 

during this Lenten Season.

Show me what you want me to learn 

in this season of reflection and prayer. 

Create something beautiful - just like the butterfly - 

that will emerge on Easter Sunday.

Amen.

Fasting During Lent

So I'm putting the "gold card" away for the next 40 days and signing off of Starbucks for Lent.

I wasn't even thinking about doing this, until last Wednesday when I had the following conversation with my Tweens (third, fourth and fifth graders) during the Lenten lesson.

Tweens: Miz Kaylea, what are you giving up for Lent?

Me: I don't know....what should I give up? (more as an afterthought).

Tweens: Well, what do you like?

Me: x, y, z, starbucks.....

Tweens: In a large unified chant: Give up Starbucks, Give up Starbucks. 

(Me feeling like the prey of circling vultures)......Um.....really?

Honestly, I wasn't thinking about Starbucks. I really intended to "give up" drinking soda again - but more for health than spiritual reasons. I'm just drinking way too much regular soda each day - especially when I'm slightly stressed. (Diet soda gives me a headache, so I tend to do the "full" stuff.)

But the more I considered their request, the more I thought, about the message it would send to my students.

This won't be easy. I'll freely admit, if I'm having a rough morning, or need a "pick me up", I will subconsciously turn out of the driveway of my apartment and pull into the shopping center with Starbucks.

I tend to blow through about $10 a paycheck - not a lot, but I'd hate to think about how much I've spent (including gift cards) since moving literally almost next door to the Bux in July.

In "Still: Notes On A Mid-Faith Crisis" Lauren F.Winner writes that during Lent we "try to devote ourselves for forty days, as the prayer book puts it, to 'self-examination and repentance...prayer, fasting, and self denial, and ...reading and meditating on God's holy Word.'"

She continues explaining how "some of us, as a token of this self-denial, will abstain from something during Lent."

To abstain means:to hold oneself back voluntarily, especially from something regarded as improper or unhealthy (usually followed by from ): to abstain from eating meat.

So I'm going to voluntarily stop going to Starbucks for the next 40 days. There's nothing inherently wrong with going there. I'm just going to stop because tweens are watching.

I told them that you can either "subtract" or "add' something during Lent - because both actions become a way to thank Jesus' for what took place in the days leading up to Easter.

I'm not only going to try to give up Starbucks, but I'm going ot also try to add something into my life - that will help me find a way to rest (my word for 2012).

In fact, I'm going to start by exploring praying in color - it's a book that's in my "pile" to purchase tomorrow at the conference

You can learn more about it here:
http://www.prayingincolor.com/blog/

I guess my prayer from this entire process is that I will feel closer to God.

So, are you adding or subtracting anything in your life during Lent?

Quote of the Day: Moving Forward

Source: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1368129   

"From a certain point onward there is no longer any turning back. 

That is the point that must be reached."

— Franz Kafka

Also

"If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant;
 if we did not taste of adversity,
prosperity would not be so welcome."

— Anne Bradstreet

Blog Tour: The Loom (Review)

Sometimes the truth is not always black and white.

Lydia dreams of another life - and she discovers a way  to obtain it through a series of choices.

But she soon learns that sometimes a dream can turn into a nightmare.

The Loom, set prior the Civil War, highlights the story of Lydia, a slave, who decides to "pass" as a white woman.

It also shows what life was like for the slaves who worked in the Loom room - the last stop along life's journey on a plantation.

I found this book interesting - but sometimes hard to follow as it jumps between two different story lines. But for a freshman novel, The Loom provides an interesting picture of life in the South. I think if you like southern lit you will find this a good read.

However, I'll be honest, the ending left me with several questions. I'm not sure if it's a stand-alone novel, or the first book in a new series.

On the scale of one to five, I give it a solid three. For a first novel, it's written well. I'll be interested in looking at what the author comes up with next.

More About The Book
A slave is torn between the love she has and the life she doesn’t.

Lydia was a common slave with a common life until the day she entered a world no slave had gone before. 

Pale skin and deceit opened the door to wealth and a power she had only dreamed of. But what she didn’t count on was falling in love. What she didn’t realize was life was not always black or white.

More About The Author
Shella Gillus fell in love with the arts as a child. By age 10, she wrote her first chapter book, a three-act play and performed in several theatrical shows.  During her teenage years, she penned and performed in plays for her local church and organized a series of summer self-esteem workshops for underprivileged youth in South Tucson.

Gillus earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Arizona and Screen Actor’s Guild membership while working in the film industry in Los Angeles. Under the tutelage of a skilled playwright, she honed her skills as a writer before becoming a professional actress for Childsplay, an award-winning theatre company.

She was crowned Miss Black Heritage, 1st runner-up Miss Black Arizona, Miss Congeniality, Copper Bowl Princess and University of Arizona Homecoming Royalty. She has made two appearances on the Oprah Winfrey show. The Loom is her fiction debut.

Gillus lives with her husband, Stacey, and their two children, Spencer and Staci, in Dallas.

Online Resources
Visit the author's website: http://shellagillus.com/
Read a sample chapter: http://shellagillus.com/sample-chapter
Buy The Loom @ Amazon
Find it at Barnes & Noble

Note: As a freelance journalist, I was provided a copy of this book the publisher, Guidepost. This review was not influenced by a free book, just in case you (or the FTC) were worried about this detail.

Sunday Thoughts: Grace

As found on Facebook this week, author/photographer unknown.

How do you view Grace?

Is it a way to live?

Or is it just a prayer learned during childhood.

I do not at all understand the mystery of grace - only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us. ~ Anne Lamott

Dear God. May I understand grace not just as simple words, but as a way of life that makes my actions speak louder than words.

Take note: While I was unable to find who started the photo, I found the quote, stated a bit differently.

Grace isn't a little prayer you chant before receiving a meal.  It's a way to live.  ~Attributed to Jacqueline Winspear