Lent March 6

I learned a thing or two about Lent over the weekend. 1) The reason Lent is 46 days and not 40 is because you take Sundays off. 2) You can take Sundays off.  You can eat chocolate, troll Facebook and be snarky.

I peeked around Facebook – no posting, just to see if I’d missed anything important. Here’s what I’d missed: Candy Crush requests. Ads for “the Silicon Valley hoodie that’s breaking the Internet.” And, of course, political outrage. I felt queasy and stressed. I lost almost 30 minutes of my life I’ll never get back. I lost that joy that was just beginning to feel like a default emotion. I don’t think I’ll take Sundays off.

Back to joy. The Pittosporum are blooming! This is a family of plant or tree that blossoms once a year. If you think orange blossoms are fragrant, you need to smell pittosporum. If you live in an area that has these trees, you will walk outside and be gobsmacked by a beautiful sweet fragrance. They blossom here anywhere between February and March, depending on how cold it’s been. These trees are planted all over South Pasadena, near our church. Now that I think of it, they’ve been a big part of our Lent experience. They promise that even if things are dark and dismal now, Spring is coming. Hope is coming.

Joy is coming anyway.

PS: I know politics are important. We must stay informed and involved. But ranting on Facebook and expecting to change someone’s mind is like a construction worker cat-calling a woman and expecting her to go out on a date. If I need real news, I’ll check TMZ.

2 Comments

  1. Thank you for the focus, and the fragrance!

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