Fat Tuesday and Beyond...

Our 'Fat Tuesday' [International Pancake Day] was a great success again.
The pancakes were delicious; the company was delightful.
We've been doing this tradition of celebrating Pancake Day for three or four years now. It's really rather silly and more of an excuse to eat a big delicious meal of pancakes than anything else. And we love it.

But it also gives me cause to stop and contemplate the day and season afterwards.

Lent. The forty or so days before Easter.

The Catholics count it from Ash Wednesday to Maundy Thursday; excluding Sundays, which equals thirty-eight days.
Some Protestants count from Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday, equaling forty days.
The Orthodox Church counts from the Sunday seven weeks before Easter and go til Good Friday, also equaling forty days.
Regardless of the exact number of days, or of whether some days are excluded, or of when it starts or ends,
Lent is a time to stop
and quietly take stock of ourselves in relation to, and our response to, the sacrifice Jesus made.

As my devotional says,
"to embrace a spiritual gravity, 
a downward movement of soul, 
a turning from our self-sufficiency, 
and sinfulness."

Much more on this to come.