Lent and Pooh - What to do?

Quote for the Day: A Lenten Reflection Give up complaining——focus on gratitude. Give up pessimism——become an optimist. Give up harsh judgments——think kindly thoughts. Give up worry——trust Divine Providence. Give up discouragement——be full of hope. Give up bitterness——turn to forgiveness. Give up hatred——return good for evil. Give up negativism——be positive. Give up anger——be more patient. Give up pettiness——become mature. Give up gloom——enjoy the beauty that is all around you. Give up jealousy——pray for trust. Give up gossiping——control your tongue. Give up sin——turn to virtue. Give up giving up——hang in there! Unknown

Many, blessings for a beautiful Lent! A good friend wrote and told me I did not have to give up anything I could do something instead! Like clean my office every day! Now that sounds much more positive to me. At Easter time to have a clean office. I think I will do that....



Still, I think I will have to give up something! Because you know what? The old ingrained Lenten system just doesn't seem to be exactly proper if I don't "give up" something. I tried one year only "doing" something and not "giving up" something.... and it just didn't work. At the end of Lent I felt like a cheat. Probably because what I did was not that hard.



And maybe Lent doesn't have to be that "hard" and "long" and "terrible" like I always think it is. Maybe I need some reconstruction on this stuff. Something more on the positive side. I don't know. In the meantime I am going to work on cleaning my office daily and giving up something as well. Just so I'm covered on both counts!



Well, I knew I was losing it. The old mind that is. But it became increasingly clear today. First - I think I was feeling more rummy from my cold yesterday than I thought. Not only did I mispell every other word I was not very clear in talking about the missing books for people. Quite a few people thought I was offering a free book. So sorry! I was just trying to find out if anyone ordered and paid for a book they did not receive. My apologies for the misunderstanding!



Then to make it even more clear that my mind has not long for this world I will explain about something else that happened. Today, was Fat Tuesday - the day we all eat and celebrate before heading into the days of lent. Well we had a wonderful dinner but then Sr. Marcia Kay got a package from a friend who had visited us recently. Inside the package were little packages. One for each Sister! What generosity. They had cute pencils and a pen and a pad of paper and lots of neat things in the package. Well this is the part that I failed the brain test.



It's very sad. I will probably have to check myself into some center for mental evaluation. It has to do with the pencils. Everyone got cute pencils with Eyore or Pooh or Tigger on them. But I looked at my pencil and all I got was a pencil that said "Hood" on it. Well, of course I'm not the type to make a big fuss you know, even though I got slighted and did not get a "Pooh" pencil but instead got a "Hood" pencil which to tell you the truth I thought was a very funny thing to put on a pencil. I mean who wants a "Hood" pencil? I mean, what did they mean by "Hood" anyway? The thing on the back of your jacket or a criminal? I wasn't sure.



So I enjoyed the rest of the meal and my presents which were very lovely and I was happy as could be even if my pencil was just a tad bit on the "strange" side....And then of course, I'm sure you figured it out yourself. I turned the pencil around and found out .... It said "POOH!" I did get a Winnie ther Pooh pencil and not a hood pencil at all. Hmmmm.. rather something I think Pooh would have done. Maybe my head is stuffed with cotton like his?



Blessings of Peace and All Good,

Sister Patricia and all the Sisters