24 February 2012

Of Fasting and Feasting by Sonia G Medeiros

Today is LLC Friday and I am a guest at Marcia Richard’s blog, where I talk about a fear that sometimes keeps us from doing what we're supposed to be doing: the fear of missing out or the FOMO.

I am thrilled to have as my guest, fiction writer, Sonia G. Medeiros. Please join me in welcoming Sonia.

Prayer

For many folk, the next several weeks will be spent in preparation for Easter with a season called Lent. Lent is a time of penance, sacrifice, preparation and spiritual renewal. The Lenten fasting prepares the body and spirit for the tribulations ahead and for the joys, the celebration and feasting.

(If you're struggling with that whole sacrifice bit, check out Jenny Hansen's solution to sinning.)

While our family observes Lent for religious reasons, I also admire the practical reasons for such a season of preparation. As our world grows ever more complex and fast-paced, we can easily lose sight of what's important and skid wildly out of balance.


This is especially true when we decided to follow a big dream or goal. The moment we open ourselves to it, the distractions, obligations and activities seek us out ruthlessly. Before we know it, our fledgling hopes can be buried. Our friends and family call us out for not paying attention to them and our work volume (in the home and/or out of it) seems to quadruple.

Buried Alive

It's enough to make anyone want to curl up in a fetal position nursing a bottle of whiskey and snorting pure sugar.

On the other hand, we can get so caught up in our dreams and goals we let everything else begin to slip.

Either way, it's the whiskey and sugar again.

But every once in a while, we need to step back and look at our lives, our dreams and our goals. Along with all the good stuff, the dreck builds up. We need to clear it out.

The dreck is all the things we do without a lot of thought. The things that we can't say "no" too, like those obligations that aren't essential but are so sweetly asked of us (and sometimes not so sweetly). The myriad ways we waste our time on activities that don't really do anything for us (*cough* playing Plants v Zombies or watching a Netflix marathon *cough*). While a little of all of this is good, too much is...too much.

Fasting from the dreck resets our inner compass, our sense of priorities and balance. Without that reset, the abundant times feel less like celebration and feasting and more like drowing...in whiskey and sugar.

This year, along with my usual Lenten rituals, I vow to take a good look at my life, schedule, dreams, work and goals. And I vow to remove as much of the dreck as possible. To streamline my priorities and to engage in those "extra" activities here and there but not to let them swamp me.

Perduta or Lost

Yeah, I've done this all before, the clearing of the dreck and the resetting of priorities. No matter how good our intentions or how hard we work, the dreck creeps up. But that's why Lent comes around every year. We human-type folks (no offense intended to those of us who may not be human...or entirely human ;)) need regular tune-ups.

How do you balance your dreams, goals and priorities? Do you set regular times to clear the dreck?

Sonia G. Medeiros is a writer of fantasy, science fiction, and horror. She's the author of more than a dozen short stories and flash fiction pieces, blogs at WordPress, and is working on her first novel, a dark fantasy. When she's not wandering along the tangled paths of her wild imagination, she wrangles home life with one fabulous husband, two amazing, homeschooled children, three dogs, one frog and two cats who battle each other for world domination.




10 comments:

  1. I love how you found a way to incorporate zombies into a lent post. You really are a writer! Truth, my favorite thing about this post, Sonia, was your reminder to us all that it's ok to realign our goals and priorities. We do get caught up in the dreck and need to refocus. That's what we SHOULD do, so we need to stop beating ourselves up for doing it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sonia, that's the best explanation of what Lent means that I have ever heard. Too many of us are walking in shoes covered with dreck and don't know what to do about it. This is an affirmation to help us shake it off and start clean.I don't have much dreck left in my life...'cept maybe social media. :) Excellent post and most excellent writing!

    ReplyDelete
  3. @Jess: Zombies? In a Lent post? Moi? *adjusts halo* LOL It's so easy to get down on ourselves for just being human.

    @Marcia: Thanks! Hopefully we all get a little better at not letting the dreck accumulate over time. And all of the balancing gets easier. :D

    ReplyDelete
  4. Nice to have you as a guest, Sonia. It's funny how your post mentions keeping things in balance and not allowing ourselves to get dragged away from our priorities. I mention the same things in my post. I promise, I didn't sneak a peek at your notes. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I always enjoyed Lent, but never really figured out why until I read your post! Retreats, stepping back, clearing our heads, it is all so important to achieving balance in our lives. And we are so much more productive when we are balanced. It feels better too! :) Thanks for a great post!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I'm with Jess - you get serious points for combining zombies with Lent. And you did a trifecta by giving me the link love - THANK YOU, Miz Sonia!!

    ReplyDelete
  7. @Gary: It always cracks me up how we all tend post around similar topics. Works out rather nicely.

    @Lara: I'm so glad. :D

    @Jenny: Bwahahaha. And I just loved that Sin Collar video. That was hilarious. Especially the guy who said, "I can no longer control my bowels but I know I'm getting into Heaven." *snort*

    ReplyDelete
  8. The whiskey and sugar analogy made me truly LOL,Sonia! I can so relate! Learning not to be overwhelmed by your goals to the point that you give them up, while also not allowing them to completely take over your life and shut out all the other good stuff, is a daily process! And I'm so glad I don't know what Plants Vs Zombies is, because zombies are already one of my guilty time-wasting pleasures each Sunday when I'm plopped in front of "The Walking Dead" instead of writing : ).

    ReplyDelete
  9. Nice post, Sonia, I especially enjoyed it, as my husband and I have been going through a "purge" at home, getting rid of so many things that have accumulated, both in the material and in the time-consumption category. It feels good to "go lean" sometimes. And to step away from distractions. I've also been saying "no" a lot lately to endeavors that might tie up time I need to focus on my writing.

    ReplyDelete

We'd love to hear from you. Don't be shy.

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.