I grew up a devout Episcopalian, which is about as close as you can get to Catholic without necessitating the purchase of a rosary or the memorization of four dozen saints’ names.  Otherwise, I was more or less Catholic, for all intents and purposes, right down to the strict observance of Lent.

No…not the little wuzzy stuff that you remove from your sweaters with a roller.  That’s lint.  And lint is pretty much impossible to observe, anyway.

I’m talking about the 40 days between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday.  That time during which all sorts of folks…Catholic and otherwise…give up their habits and vices and addictions oh my in remembrance of all that Jesus sacrificed for the world.

Over the years, I anticipated Lent with about as much enthusiasm as an anticipated mammogram…you know…

Ultimately good for me.

And painful as all get-out.

For weeks preceding Lent, I would agonize, changing my mind again and again, about what I would have to live without for a month, wondering all the while how I would ever get by.

Chocolate?

French fries?

Coffee?

Wine?  *shudder*

Why did it always seem to be consumption-centered?

Come to think of it, In those days, I might very well have preferred observing lint to observing Lent.

It wasn’t until the past decade or so that I started seeing Lent through a different lens, so to speak.

Not lint through a magnifying glass…Lent with different eyes.

I began to regard Lent as a time of reflection…

Of moderation…

Of casting off that which does not matter, that which fills my mind and life with unnecessary distractions and complications…

…in order to simplify and focus on what matters most.

I don’t know about you, but I can do with a lot less Stuff and a lot more of What Matters Most.

And in that spirit, this Lent, I’m doing this:

Can I say “crap” during Lent? Yes…yes, I believe I can.

I stumbled across this pin while having hours of my life sucked away by perusing Pinterest, so I clicked over to see what the hubbub was about.

Turns out?  It’s about spending the 40 days prior to Easter casting off that which does not matter.

Simplifying.

Eliminating distractions.

Of cutting the crap, so to speak.  There now…I just said it again.

40 bags of crap (OopsISaidItAgain)…or cabinets de-cluttered…or drawers streamlined…or closets cleaned…in 40 days.

This?  Is a challenge that I relish.

So now, if you’ll excuse me…my closet is beckoning me.

I have some serious decrapifying to do.

Tell me…do you “do” Lent?  And if so, how are you doing it this year?

Inspired by a prompt from Mama Kat:  Pinterest Inspired!