Pressing On Toward The Bliss

Recently, my ego got twisted off and ripped all of the way out of my being.  In one fell swoop.  

The Ego is what gets in the way of most of Life’s Bliss:  It’s what causes those emotional reactions that alienate us from situations (and people) we love.

Considering that, I’m “happy.”

However…

Ripping a Band-Aid off a recently cauterized wound hurts a LOT.  And the bleeding starts all over again.

In other words, the Abandoned Little Girl who lives inside me has been let out of her room and she is UN. HAPPY.  I *thought* we resolved our issues and yet here we are again, crying over the same hurts.  Really?

So, today, Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, I say (to myself), “Yes, really…again.” and I press on.  I press on toward the change and the re-birth and the transformation that The Resurrection promises (and delivers) every Spring. 

I press on, away from the muck and the mire, even though I’m still stuck deep in it.  I’ll eventually get out. 

I thought Lent was about giving up something beloved in order to achieve grace and mercy.  Oh, how wrong I was.  Lent is about giving something up:  It’s about giving up that something – whatever it is – that’s holding us back from experiencing the Bliss and the Joy of Spring, a.k.a., Life.  After all, when is Life more sweetly beautiful than those first heady days of May?

For Lent, I give up feeling bad about myself because of All That Crap That Happened.  It’s The Light flowing through me that attracted AND TRANSFORMED All. Of. That. Dark.

I give up feeling somehow exempt from the very happiness I keep telling other people they’ve earned and deserve.

I give up mourning what was and I press on toward celebrating what is and what is no longer, thank God.

I’m ready – for the first time – to enjoy the season of Lent.