Ash Wednesday Special - and Fasting

A number of members of the Etsy Prayersonawire team are offering Ash Wednesday specials today. In my shop, enter coupon code ASHWED2011 at checkout to receive 20% off your order. And as a special mention to those reading this blog, I won't be canceling the coupon code until I get up on Thursday morning, so the special doesn't stop at midnight.

 Reading a good book

Fasting is not my preferred form of penance. It just makes me tired and irritable and not particularly Christian. So I only engage in it on the two days per year that I have to and am looking forward to getting old enough to be able to ignore it entirely.


Yeah, I know, Catholic fasting is no big deal. No food between meals and two small meals that don't add up to the size of the main meal. It's a joke compared to Ramadan. But I'm a grazer. My usual eating pattern is one small item every couple of hours. Keeps my blood sugar level and keeps me from getting hungry and eating too much. I probably eat more on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday than I do on most other days. They're two of the rare occasions when I'll actually eat a meal.

Thank God I don't have to forgo coffee! And the people I work with probably think the same thing.

So what am I "giving up for Lent"? (Certainly not coffee!) I'm going to try a moratorium on watching DVDs (except ones I need to watch for a project I'm doing). I'm in the process of reading a really good book, and am reminded how much better that can be than watching a movie. Only problem is that I can't do something else while I'm reading as I can while I'm watching a DVD, but I've lately decided to cut back on the rosary making, anyway, so this is pretty good timing. 

I'm not promising to be perfect. And I'm not promising that everything I read will be profound. But I think this will be something positive.