Reflecting Back on Lent

I decided to take a look at my thoughts on Lent as it first started. I had posted a note on Facebook which included the following practices I would attempt to follow during this season of Lent. They included:

• I am taking an online class called "Holy Companions: Spiritual Practices from the Celtic Saints.   I did take the class, but (oh that word, BUT) I got distracted by two major incidents that occurred. One was a freak accident of a friend's child, who is all ok, thank God, and another I cannot write about on the blog, but is much more directly involving me. Pray.

• visiting my spiritual director at least twice - I have seen her once, but(there's that but word again), she got sick, so we missed an appointment, but we did make it up. I would go see her this week, but I do have mercy on clergy during Holy Week.
• minimize my use of Facebook - I haven't been as successful with this, but (ahem) I have tried...
• increase my prayer time - I do believe that I have prayed more - for others because of their situations at hand, but also more intentional in general. And for that I am grateful.
• ????????????? - I have no idea why I had the question marks at the end. Maybe that was left to be open to the Holy Spirit guiding me through Lent??

As Lent closes the door, I HAVE noticed something significant. There wasn't the dark looming cloud of feeling despair as much as I have in the past. That being said, I am saying this with hindsight and it's still light in the evening. February is not a good month for me in general, with the malaise of winter that seems to fall on me. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel of Lent.

The story ain't over yet.... We got some serious stuff this week - all packed into short amount of time. It's exhausting, the emotions go from one extreme to the other. We know how it ends - and it's just the beginning.