Lent!

I can’t believe it’s time for Lent again. Again. Again. Again!

Last year, I felt like I had been in Lent for a year. Worse than Lent. I had given up going to my gym, given up going out to get groceries, and going out to eat, and going to the movies, and, worst of all, going over and visiting friends. Cooking for them. Cooking with them. Cracking jokes about silly little things that would only be funny because we’ve known each other for 30 years. And that of that? Poof. Gone in a pandemic.

And then, hurrah!, the vaccine! We got a shot in the arm and then, weeks later, a second one. After that second one took, we were able to go out and do stuff again. I went to Disneyworld! I went to Costco! I WENT OVER TO MY FRIENDS’ HOUSES AND WE COOKED TOGETHER!

Since then, the mask mandate wandered back and it looks like it might be wandering away again. Grocery delivery is still a thing, but it’s *LESS* of a thing and it’s not a big deal anymore to just stop by the grocery store on the way home and pick up some garlic bread or some bell peppers.

We went out to a restaurant with an outdoor deck for our 21st anniversary and sitting on that deck, we discussed that that was the first time we’d eaten out together in more than a year and a half (and, yeah, we haven’t gone out to eat since then). Still no movies. Still no gym.

So while it feels like we’ve been given so much back since the days of Safer at Home, there’s still so very much that we still don’t do.

For example: We had our IHOP pancakes delivered instead of going out there and sitting in the booth and discussing the last year. But we ate them and discussed the last year and it was good. We managed to accomplish so much! The deck has been treated and it is now good for a few more years. The roof was replaced. The trees in the back yard were pruned. So very many of the things we felt we couldn’t do because of the pandemic has now been done. We were in a place where we felt like we couldn’t even catch up. Now? It feels like we’re where we should have been last year.

So when it comes to giving stuff up for Lent? Well, I still feel like I’ve given up a lot. So I’ll do Metamucil again.

And *NEXT* year will be the year that will be normal enough to give something up without thinking that doing so would tipple topple everything.

(And I need another “Oh, I remember that song!” song for the post… here’s one.)

So… what are you giving up for Lent? Or, at least, meditating on?