oddly successful weekend (a.k.a. "God sneaks in"?

Great insight from sis - sometimes she really surprises me, that one.

She called Wednesday to talk to me about Lent. Now, as someone who veers treacherously close to being Lutheran about things, Lent is my cup of tea. She described reading an article that put Lent and "giving up things" into a whole new light for her and was kind enough (and willing to be vulnerable enough) to share that with me.

Basically, the writer believed that to focus on just the sacrifice we are making (such as not smoking, etc) was to miss the point. The point was to use that instance of desiring the cigarette (for example) and remembering the Lent promise as a trigger to replace the cigarette with a prayer and to come closer to our spiritual right path in that way. (I am sure I am paraphrasing quite a bit, but this is what I heard...)

So my sister was going to take this approach and forego sugar for Lent. I immediately loved both the approach and the idea of ditching sugar and decided to join her in it.

So Thursday, there were many, many moments of prayer. Sadly for me, I missed the gratitude boat during most of them and the prayers were a whiney sort of thing - "Oh God, help me as I suffer, suffer, SUFFER by driving right past the McDonald's where a chocolate-dipped vanilla ice cream cone is shouting my name."

But ah well.

So then my weekend became not at all what I planned - perhaps it was all about the minor whiplash transition from my will to a bit more (or completely) God's will. I hope it was, anyway. Sometimes that happens when you pray more, even when you are a pretty lame prayer.

First, my prospective housemate canceled saying he was just not wanting to move at all right now. This sent me into a bit of financial panic.

So I was compelled to start pulling together tax documents.

Then Friday morning I walked out of my garden gate to find - ACK ACK - my automobile has been repossessed due to my not noticing that I needed to make a payment in February.

It was a sign to me about how 'underwater' I'd gone in February. It's a shit month for me in a lot of ways and I've come to deal with it by getting annoyed with my mother (it's a shit month for her too) as she makes all kinds of preparations for getting through February.

My sister let me know that there was a Lenten exemption granted for car repo, so the half a pie that I ate later on Friday was forgiven.

Anyway, by Saturday I was eager to get totally conscious about all of my finances, a willingness I have not had for many months.

I went to painting class, always a joy and stretched my very first canvas - and did a kick-butt job of it. I'm almost prouder of that beautiful stretched canvas than I am of a painting. I love looking at it. Maybe won't be able to paint on it?


Sunday morning, I went to my new favorite meeting, the 10 am at the Alano Club. I had this great feeling there of being in the right place, that all the 'cool kids' were there in the room with me, that all was going to be ok.

Now, for the last week also, I had been covering up the fact that I had very sneakily adopted a second dog. Why sneakily? Because I knew that my sister, my mother, my sponsor, etc would have all strongly advised against it. So, in my February "I'm not really here" mode, I just did it anyhow. All the time knowing I was acting in a very strange rebellious way.

So not surprisingly, this dog (puppy)turned out not to be at all a good fit.

Somehow going to a meeting allowed me to admit to this on Sunday afternoon and the foster mom (thank GOD) was thrilled to get the dog back and felt like she should never have let him go. So I think God managed to get the dog to where he belonged.

I was happy, my 'old' dog was happy, the puppy was happy and Sunday night was all about just being relieved, watching the Oscars with my sister, having much less to worry about so that we could just laugh & joke about the gowns and eat pizza. It was good, really good.

Rollercoaster, love, love, say what?