I wonder when this happened last–Valentine’s Day falling on the first day of Lent!
The holiday that encourages voluptuous appetites, hedonistic pleasure, and over-the-top expressions of love.
AND the marking of 40 days in the desert wilderness–days of fasting, fastidious moral behavior, and going without.
What a beautiful paradox!!
Both of these extremes express
a yearning of the heart.
A yearning to find our way to our True Home–
to the Awakened Heart.
We can find our way in great pleasure and in great abstinence. Without indulging in either.
Sister Joan Chittister reminds us what Lent is really about:
“Lent is about becoming, doing, and changing whatever it is that is blocking the fullness of life in us right now.”
“The fullness of life” is Love.
We are invited today–on Lenten Valentine’s Day–to become, do, or change what is necessary to open to more Love.
Maybe that’s through flowers and chocolate and saying “I love you” to yourself and/or another.
Maybe it’s through daily prayer and removing [you name it] from your life.
You get to decide!
How will you practice to invite the awakening of your heart?
If you want to start right now, join me for #40daysofpractice on facebook, posting one way you practiced every day.
AND if you’re in the neighborhood, join Dave and me in our new Enneagram workshop starting mid-March:
Nourishing Wholeness 
Thank you for this approach. It gave me insight as I was wrestling with these opposite themes
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I’m so glad to hear it was helpful, Kimberly! 🙂
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I really like this concept, Katy. I think it relates to the joy of learning and growth as a large component of what is glorious and joyful in life itself. Yes, digging around in the dirt of our egoistic, foolish selves we instinctively avoid because we’re afraid of pain. That belief can be switched if we think of it as removing dirt from hidden treasure. Not buried teasure necessarily, just a bit dull or tarnished or removed from the light that burnishes without burning. I can’t be with you and Dave in your woke workshop, but know that I’m doing the Valentine/Lent thing daily with you in spirit. Time to shake the dust off our wings and fly. Good riddance to bad rubbish any day. And the day after and …
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yes, that’s a lovely image, Irene, of removing the tarnish from the precious treasure. it would be fun to have you join us in the workshop, but you don’t live here anymore! 😦 feel free to join me in my #40daysofpractice on FB. i’m posting one practice i do per day. i’d love to share the process with you! (duplicates allowed. :))
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