The weekend...

...was short, compared to last weekend, during which we had a 3-day weekend (thanks to the Presidents) and during which I actually enjoyed a 4-day weekend (thanks to a dentist appointment, which facilitated my taking Friday off). Nice! And then Tuesday was a sub day, as I had to attend a conference on positive behavior. So really, last week was easy.

While this weekend is short (and tempered by the fact that I felt terrible for most of the day -- was it the chicken last night or the cheerios this morning? or perhaps a passing bug?), this week will again feel short, as I'm missing three days in the classroom due to being pulled out to write a course and the fact that I already had Friday scheduled as a personal day for several months now. Eek! I'll have to reintroduce myself to my students the following week.

What is it about February? This seems to have happened last year at the same time, too. I think it's because February is the beginning of our new semester, and everyone seems to see it as a good time to start new things. Sigh. Never mind that the high school exit exam happens in exactly a month and that I have two classes of sophomores to prepare for it. At least my sub is tried, true, and excellent. I wouldn't be able to sleep if it weren't for her. (She's my former master teacher and a retiree after over thirty years in our district. No one tries to pull crap on her. She's a godsend!)

In other news, Lent doesn't seem to be as difficult this year as it has in years past. Maybe it's just that it's still early in the season -- I may be singing a different tune in a month. The take-aways haven't felt as challenging -- oh, sure, I want wine with dinner and sweets after, and it's hard to go home and cook when I'd really rather go out to eat, but I'm not suffering, by any measure -- but the add-ons are more difficult. I'm a spectactularly undisciplined person about certain things, and I'm spectacularly good at rationalizing why I cannot do certain things at certain times. Excuses R Us, right here. So there's a good reason I forgot to do morning or evening prayer yesterday, and there's a good reason why I read two pottery magazines instead of reading something a little more devotional and challenging (not that art isn't devotional -- it is, exceedingly, but for me today, reading about it was more avoidance behavior than devotion).

Today's sermon, naturally, was about Jesus' temptation in the wilderness. Of course, his forty days of fasting put my little Lenten disciplines to shame, but fortunately it's not about comparative self-denial. It's about identifying our besetting sins and obsessions and addictions and distractions, and then setting about to cultivate the corresponding virtues (that from today's sermon). It is the opportunity to do new things. (We all know the definition, usually attributed to Einstein, of insanity -- in essence, doing the same thing and expecting different results.) Time to do new things for new, hoped-for results. New Year's resolutions never work for me -- they're good for reflection and such, but I rarely stick with them. Lent, though...I guess maybe because God's involved somehow...I tend to take a little more seriously.

P.S. A lenten devotional upcoming -- I get to go hear Mary Oliver later this week! Can't wait!