ashes to ashes.

happy Mardi Gras, tumbloves. hope your day so far is a lot less dreary than the Chicago weather is. I wanted to check in as a quick hello/goodbye today as the last day before Lent.

thinking about what I wanted to give up, I tried to think honestly about in what I needed most to grow. where am I falling short consistently? honestly, one of my biggest faults is mindfulness. I am the queen of wandering through a day mindlessly and then, at the end of the day, having no idea what I had actually done.

Lent, then, is going to be a time for me to be more intentional and mindful of what I do. to that end, I’ll be giving up two different things. first, I am giving up kneelers when I’m in the chapel. it’ll be a small sacrifice, but to give up that little bit of comfort for the sake of more attentive prayer and to require mindfulness of where I sit in order to be courteous to others and to maintain my own prayerfulness will be a blessing. I’m also giving up tumblr.

no but seriously guys. I’m giving up tumblr.

I’m already dreading it. still, I know the mindless hours I waste on here over any given week. I know that they sometimes take the place of sleep, of homework, of responsibilities, of real life interactions with others. giving it up will mean taking a break from the people I truly enjoy on here, it will mean getting behind on memes… it will mean less time staring at pictures of Justin Vernon. it will be difficult, but it will be good. I’m aiming to replace tumblr not with other websites like facebook or even with my netflix queue, but with prayerful reading. I’m going to finish Tattoos on the Heart first, then I’m going to tackle Love and Responsibility.

so today I’ll be lurking around, then I’ll be away for 40 days. if you’re so inclined, pray for my Lenten experience and for those of others. if you aren’t, no sweat, see you soon.