Lent Me Your Ear

As I was trying to decide how to "celebrate" Lent this year, I decided that once again I would do an additive fast. What I decided to add was writing. So, everyday I have to write something - a blogpost, a tweet, a comment - in reaction to something in my world. It's been a long time since I've written anything except for emails and case notes for work. A written voice, like a mind, is a terrible thing to waste.

The prayer that goes along with my fast is for presence, the state of being attuned to what is happening right here, right now. Wherever my right here, right now is, I want to be there, too. Presence has never been a skill I've had. I'm always in my head, making a to-do list, making a done list, reliving the past, preliving the future. Luckily, I can multitask. Just the same, I want to occasionally just be and enjoy where I am.

This writing challenge does help with the presence, because it tunes my reticular activating system to look for things to write about. And the presence helps my writing, because it lends detail and connection to my subject matter. So, I'm hoping that my fast and my prayer will continue to have a symbiosis, of sorts. We shall see...