Keepin outta trouble

I’ve been past the age of Lenten fasting for eons, now, but I am never beyond the age of abstinence.

Most of my days are fleshless anyway, but even all Fridays year-round are meatless for here as best I can (sneakily) arrange for that in a household of varying observance and generations.

If you build it (tuna salad, seafood salad, tuna melts, grilled cheese & tomato soup, baked haddock, pasta & sauce, salads, vegetable lasagna, DIY pizzas), they will come! In Lent, of course, the exciting stuff should be held off from (if you don’t see anything exciting above, you live a better life!).

Husband used to give up beer and desserts for Lent. Now, I don’t think he gives up anything, but he prays more — daily. And, like me, he probably has only two smaller meals on the Fridays of Lent.

I felt a lot like Eve when I suggested to him years ago that neither yogurt nor graham crackers were desserts, actually… It’s just that he worked so hard every day. (Still does.) I tried suggesting once or twice that every Sunday was a feast day, so we could have dessert (or at least a little chocolate) or a beer — just one.

I’m such an enabler. The point is to make small sacrifices to go with almsgiving and prayer — getting the soul a little more buff, right? A little more solidarity with the Lord — and His other people.

At any rate, it happened in Lent this year but maybe before that when I decided I should not eat until I have prayed. It depends on what time of day it is; apparently, I eat very near the 3 o’clock mark which is when I pray some mercy prayers.

Really, though, praying first specifically for all who don’t have enough to eat or drink is something we should simply just do. It’s even better than saying Grace, because He surely knows we’re thankful and this way, we’ll be moved to ask for something for these, and perhaps even be moved to donate.

Always, perhaps like you, my mind goes to Ukraine and Africa and even here, not least of all down the hill to the homeless, or to the countryless in Casa Juan Diego, and to so many in Syria.. It is agonizing to be hungry (/thirsty), and have no decent options. It never goes away.

We’re a very food-centered lot. Jesus knew that, which is why He offered bread and wine as the accidents of His very Body and Blood of our covenant, and even made it possible for us to help offer It.

Sometimes we just fall into something extra to do. Daughter came into amassing, in the past couple of years, many cans of food kept out in the hallway. When she moves out, she likes to take nothing (I get that), but her EBT won’t be in until Sunday, which will be a lower amount than ever, two school vacations were staggered so she’s missed a lot of paid work, and we’re expecting Snowmageddon for the next 24 hours.

She lives quite a drive away, has 4 mouths to feed this weekend+ (and no microwave yet), so I did what we’d both dreaded — I went through all the canned goods, teased out the hieroglyphic “Best by” dates, wrote them larger in marker on the tops, and managed to send her back to her apartment with boxes of soups, fruits, vegetables, taco sauce packets and muffin mixes.

I tossed in some burgers and hot dogs and not surprisingly (to her), the 6 one$ I found in her daughter’s old sleepover-pillow, as well as a purse from her own room which held all her little relics and medals.

I should probably just make short stories of these days.. Anyway, I was grateful to do something that mattered. That’s all I want on my tombstone: “She did stuff, sometimes.” Maybe with a little Cross somewhere.

I hope your days, be they winter or summer, are being fruitful, especially in this season of Lent. I’m sure you do stuff, sometimes, too. Maybe with a little Cross somewhere. It matters.. from here to Beyond here.

(Just for the record, if you find quarters while you do stuff, I’m pretty sure you can keep them. 😉)

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❤️❤️❤️

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