I'm pretty sure Jesus wasn't a procrastinator.

But here I am, on the eve of Ash Wednesday with no idea of what to give up for Lent. I took a totally unscientific poll this week (Mr. Valentine the scientist would be so displeased) and found that most people give up the usual suspects: smoking, drinking, swearing, chocolate, midget porn, etc. I don't smoke anymore, so that's out. I couldn't care less about chocolate so that would be cheating. I suppose if I really wanted to liken my Lenten experience to Jesus' 40 fast in the wilderness I could give up cheese but come on, we all know that ain't happenin'. (I have a segment called Fromage Fridays people. I am very serious about cheese.)

I think I'm going to take a two pronged approach to Lent this year. I've decided to give up a tangible thing - drinking of any kind. This will most certainly make St. Patty's Day suck but that seems a tad bit whiny when you are trying to channel the sacrifice of a man who wandered in the wilderness for 40 days before ultimately dying a supremely unpleasant death for all humanity.

I think that is a good start, however I'm not sure that me giving up lemon drops & prosecco really is the point of the Lent exercise, so the second "sin" I am giving up is a behavior. For the next 40 days, I am going to attempt to stop stop complaining/criticizing others. I don't think of myself as a mean person, but I am an OCD, type A, only child with a dash of Irish depression thrown in. I can be hypercritical, both of myself and others. So my real challenge for the next 40 days is to stop sweating the small stuff I guess. Stop complaining about my job and do something about it. Stop criticizing my husband for not cleaning enough and start thanking him for working so hard for us. Stop whining about the relationships in my life that hurt and try to find some peace in them.

It is easy to get bogged down by what tires us in life: bills, sickness, stress & pain. I'm hoping the next forty days reaffirm what I already know, that I am an intensely lucky woman with a lifetime of good still to come. St. Athanasius described Lent as "becoming by grace what God is by nature." That's a pretty tall order, but I think with forty Cosmo-free days and a renewed positivity I can find a little of that grace in my life.