It’s Ash Wednesday and one of my favourite times of year.  It’s the day that Catholics all over the world, gather in churches to have the ashes of last year’s palm leaves smudged across their foreheads and collectively embark on a season of commitment…a season of sacrifice.

I’m committing to three changes this Lenten season; I’m giving up coffee {which may result in losing most of my friends…only time will tell!!!}, toxic people {it sounds good in theory!} and I’m also committing to embracing deeper gratitude.  As superficial as this is, the most challenging one of the three is going to be coffee.  I love my morning Starbucks run.  Or rather, I L*O*V*E my morning Starbucks run…but this past year has been beyond indulgent in terms of caffeine and having a small child apparently revolutionized my relationship with my local baristas!!  Truth be told though, I’m pretty eager to give my body a break from the artificial vitality that comes with coffee and given all of the other changes that I’m making in my life right now, letting my body go back to it’s natural rhythm for a while seems appropriate.

Now, I say this having been only nineteen hours into Lent…so we’ll see how delightful an idea this continues to be in another week or so!!!

At the end of all this, I may have a much better understanding of why Jesus spent his forty days in the desert…alone!