The art of giving up

It's that time of the year again, the period of Lent. ( yes I know am 3 weeks late) so what did I give up this Lent season, well.....nothing really.

I have heard many interesting things people have given up, alcohol, cakes, chocolate, meat, cucumbers, you name it people are giving it up.

It was interesting after meeting up with a good friend of mine over the weekend ( who had given up meat and alcohol), we went for lunch, and I found myself trying to join her vegetarian nature for the meal, we settled on a prawn dish ( sea food is not meat ;)) and then she ordered a glass of wine!! To which I said 'hold on here!' and she quickly said ' oh for weekends am off'. Oh my! The new rules of the 21st century Lent.

This got me thinking. We all treat lent as time of self sacrifice which it rightly is and straight after the 40 days we are back bingeing on the one thing that we 'over love' if I can put it that way. If you can 'correct' it over Lent why not then just have it in moderation after. Because at this rate it's almost the 40 day game we play each year. A test of one self. And then back to the 'off days'

So as you go through the period of Lent this year (about 3 weeks more) think of the time after Lent, if you thought it was something you wanted to give up, can you carry it into your usual daily 'Lent free' life, so that next year it's not the same thing that you are giving up, as you are no longer a prisoner to it.

Albert Einstein defined insanity as 'doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different outcome.' Let's not ritualise Lent the way we have ritualised Christmas.