Friday Five: what are you doing for Lent?

Mother Laura over at RevGals asks these timely questions:

1. Did you celebrate Mardi Gras and/or Ash Wednesday this week? How?

Ash Wednesday this year included a potluck dinner (best spread all year), me telling a Godly-Playish Ash Wednesday story for children, and then a quiet service in the sanctuary, in which I was primarily a participant this year. The best part of the night was the story with the children, where we talked about how Baptism marks us as God's child, but afterwards you can't see the mark of the water. With the ashes, we can see the mark on everyone, and remember that all our lives long, and even after, we belong to God. My own SuperGirl (7) offered that the ashes remind her of her brother, whose ashes are in a beautiful garden columbarium. Yes indeed, in life and in death, we belong to God.....

2. What was your most memorable Mardi Gras/Ash Wednesday/Lent?

Canberra, Australia in 1991 (?) at the World Council of Churches, in a huge white tent, with Christian people from all different traditions and cultures. The guy with the ashes got a big glob on my forehead, and they fell down on my nose, and we looked each other in the eye and grinned. We probably didn't speak the same language. We looked and dressed very differently. But in that moment, we were brother and sister.

3. Did you/your church/your family celebrate Lent as a child? If not, when and how did you discover it?

I did not grow up in a congregation where Ash Wednesday was celebrated (at least not that I knew of). My first experience was in the big Gothic college chapel, where a few of us sat in the choir pews mid-day, and then went out, marked. I recall feeling very...different from other people on campus afterwards. I went alone, but felt connected to those sitting with me in a way I hadn't experienced before with strangers.

4. Are you more in the give-up camp, or the take-on camp, or somewhere in between?

A little of both. Each year is different. For a number of years Mr. Incredible and I were fasting once a week during Lent. That got harder when I was pregnant and nursing, and more recently, recovering from surgery. I'm not good at true fasting. The take-on camp is where I usually land, since I tend to be undisciplined, and it bothers me.

5. How do you plan to keep Lent this year?

In my Lenten Disciplines post below, I mention that I am doing two things: eating/cooking more at home, rather than eating out for convenience. Also, writing everyday.