I have been totally slacking on keeping this blog up to date.  As the spring season quickly approaches I have been reading, trying to connect with people and get myself ready for a season that many religions consider the most holy time.

This morning I attending my first Ash Wednesday Mass.  I have been to Catholic churches before, mostly for weddings, funerals and a few midnight masses on Christmas Eve.  On one of the Christmas Eve Masses I went up to take communion, I grew up in a Christian Baptist Church and took communion there all the time.  I had no idea about the detailed rituals and what to say when receiving communion in a Catholic church.  I went to take the holy sacrament of the body of Christ which looks like a small wafer.  As the wafer was being placed in my hand I said “Thank you” the woman took it back out of my hand and asked “Are you Catholic?” I said no, and she gave me a blessing instead.  I went back to my seat with no wafer and was not allowed to take part in communion.  I was pissed. I thought to myself “I believe in God, the Priest just said all were welcome, why do I not feel welcome?”

When I started down this ‘year of religion’ path I knew I had to try new things and understand that I am not a part of all of the religions I am exploring.  I want to be respectful in the spaces that I occupy.  I am happy to say that in mass this morning for Ash Wednesday I felt very different than I did on that Christmas Eve.  I feel like I have a new understanding of the lent season.

During Mass this morning the priest, Father David, spoke about a season of reflection and renewal.  He shared a story about when he was younger and learning to fly airplanes.  His dad was a private pilot and needed to pick up a part in another city.  He asked his son David if he wanted to join him to get some practice hours flying.  On the flight his dad took off and gave the controls over to David, telling him to wake him up when they got close. David did not account for the crosswinds that were blowing the plane little by little off course.  His dad woke up after about an hour and asked if they were almost to the destination.  David then realized he was lost. His dad instructed him to fly low over a small town so he could take a look at the name on the water tower.  They located the town on the map and redirected their path accordingly.

Father David told us that Lenten season was about reflection and redirection.  Are we on the right spiritual path?  The reason many people give up something for Lent is to help deepen the understanding of what God has done for us by giving up something we enjoy.  The ashes to remind us that our time here on earth is short.

To help me remember daily to refocus and take time to reflect, I have chosen to give up meat and dairy products and be vegan for the next 40 days.  If you knew me you know that this is going to be a big challenge.  I love food, I love to bake, cook, and feed people.  I am hoping this process will give me a new respect for my access to food and ability to make life changes.

I grew up as a Christian. We celebrate Christmas, Easter and when I am with my parents we pray before we eat.  I was very involved in Sunday School and Youth group growing up which was a choice that I made. I spent my late teens years my early 20’s trying to walk the path of a good Christian and figuring out who I was and what being a Christian meant to me. I spent a lot of time praying and repeating the saying “God’s love is enough”. I have been blessed with the heart and the ability to travel and the more I do the less I feel like I know. I decided make 2019 a year of trying to understand religions and different points of view. I felt like 2018 was a tear full of disconnects in our world and misunderstanding. This is my way of trying to change just a bit of that.  

This Year of Religion project is in no way to take away from my chosen religion but to understand others, to listen, to reflect, to bring new ideas and ways of thinking into my life.

My husband will be joining me along on this journey along with friends and I am guessing new ones I am going to make.  You will be hearing from him and them as they join on in these blog posts. I know there are many things that I can’t control but I can control my actions and what I bring into this word. So here we go…

January 2^nd and I finished my first book on Buddhism.  Having a long flight, travelling for work, helped make time for me to read. I read “No-nonsense Buddhism for Beginners” by Noah Rasheta. The last time I remember reading anything on Buddhism was in high school during a world history class. I was surprised about how much I felt like I could relate to Buddhism and the amount of questions that I have about the practice.

As a social worker I found that Buddhism has some parallels with some of the concepts I learned getting my Masters in Social Work. Don’t know why I did not think of this before, but the focus on the present and mindfulness I found through this book really struck a chord with me and how I can integrate these things in my daily life. I work with youth and many of them deal with trauma and many would say they have been dealt an unfair hand in life. What I enjoyed about this book and trying to understand Buddhism in 100 pages was that life is suffering. The faster we understand things are going to suck, and can accept it, and move on the better life will be.  How we approach the challenges, understand the feelings and move past them, the simpler we make our lives. So many times, when things happen I think “of course!” You go to leave the house and you forgot your keys, someone cuts you off driving when you are already late, you spill on yourself right before an important meeting. So many times, I think “this only happens to me” I know that these types of things happen to everyone, they are a piece of life. Changing from the ‘poor me’ mentality and flipping it, as these things are a natural part of life, and only you can control your response. I want to be better at controlling my response and I think Buddhism is going to help with that. We will see…