Amy Lu's View

In the lead up to today, I’ve been thinking about how funny, and perhaps deeply meaningful, it is that Valentine’s Day and Lent are on the same day. Chocolate and romance and sacrifice and contemplation all mixed into one?

I had such lofty dreams. Could I combine these two seemingly disparate holidays and  meaningfully vow to give up things that stand in the way of loving and connection? Could I abstain from (or at least reduce) fear, defensiveness, distraction, and just general bitchiness for 40 days?

Um, sure?

As I have said before, I seem to be more successful at doing things rather than not doing things. So I also thought about declaring my intention to do some things I love (or helps me do things that I love better) for 40 days.

Morning Me had such high hopes. I could vow to practice drums and piano for 15 minutes EACH every day! (If that doesn’t sound like much…well, it’s amazing how much I can get away with. Just imagine what a virtuoso I could be if I practiced). AND I could do a writing 10-minute writing exercise (inspired by something that Chad is doing) every day. That’s less than half an hour a day of self-improvement and artistic fulfillment, right?

Now Me smiles at such naivety.

I’m now officially declaring that in the spirit of Valentine’s Lent, I will do ONE creative/self-actualization practice per day (drums/writing/piano) AND be less bitchy while I do it (and nicer to Chad in general). For today, Day 1, I played drums. And while I can’t really say if I was less bitchy to Chad, I barely saw him, so I had less oppportunity to be bitchy but that counts.

Notice there are not declarations to give up (or even reduce) alcohol, diet soda or chips.