Anger: a stage in keeping a Lenten discipline

-
I got so angry at myself. I had been faithfully recording all my plastic use in the first few days and all that time I’d been using tiny single-use plastic creamer cartons for milk in my hot beverages and not even noticing. 

Not. Even. Noticing.

Argh! I exclaimed on Facebook. GodDAMN! I wrote in my plastic log. I said far worse to myself.

Success, winning, perfection are not what this, or any, Lenten discipline is about. Beating myself up is destructive, and God is a creative force, not destructive. I can hear my husband saying “Remember this!” as I can be harder on myself than anyone else. Doing that won’t help me succeed in my Lenten discipline, especially as it was one I had chosen knowing it wasn’t going to be something I could “win” at. 

So instead I need to be creative and constructive and allow my anger to be the drive that "gets it done", such as being a voice for change. As Will Chase says in the new series “Whiskey Cavalier”, “I have my feelings. My feelings don’t have me.”
  • Instead of tiny plastic creamers? Bring my own milk to work in a small bottle.
  • Write to the manufacturers of plastic (insert just about every product in existence here) and ask them to change their product packaging from plastic. 

 Did your Lenten discipline bring up feelings of anger? How are you handling it?

Comments

Post a Comment

Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment.

Popular posts from this blog

Where Bloggers Create Party!

-
Image
My Desert Cottage Not much has changed in my art room since last year . I had a substantial to-do list this year and I didn't quite get to all of them. Here's what was on my "to-do" that got t'done: 1) I made pretty labels for my binders: 2) I cleaned out my closet. (There is no before picture: just imagine stacks of boxes, giant plastic containers and the like.) The closet now holds some stamp storage (off to the side behind the purple velvet dress that's hanging; a chest of drawers packed with fabric (now consolidated into one space except for another drawer in last year's pink chest of drawers); and a sacred space. The wall has book pages taped onto it. I got the idea and the technique from Aunt Peaches . Eventually, the small stained glass cross will move and be above the ombry that I have on permanent loan (currently holding my prayer books and a bible), which is a bit of a long story, but basically when I no longer have a use f...
Read more

Where Bloggers Create Party II: My Room 2010 (with lots of pictures)

-
Image
I'm excited to be joining the Where Bloggers Create Party for the first time. I discovered it last year, ages after it happened and I literally spent the day looking through them all! I hope you enjoy my space. The sign on my door. I made it as a make-and-take a couple of years ago. Here's an overall view of my room. You can't tell because of the lighting but the walls are not pink. They're pale lavender. The bookcase I bought from Target a year or two ago. It's "Shabby Chic". The bottom drawer holds my German scrap and the "transparent" stuff. The bookcase from Target that used to be under the window is now vertical. The addition to the top of pink chest of drawers is a library card file that was gonna be tossed from church until I rescued it. It holds rolls of seam binding and millinery. I might paint it next year.... Next to it is a tiered holder of mostly lace, but some feathers and flowers. The chest of drawers holds glue, large photos, fa...
Read more

"where there is darkness, light" - Prayer of St. Francis series

-
Image
Today's guest blogger is Joe Pote. As a s tudent of the Bible since early childhood, Joe was literally raised in church, attending multiple church services and Bible studies each week. Having also endured the devastation of a failed marriage, Joe combines a sound understanding of biblical principles with personal experience of the issues and concerns of believers who have experienced divorce.  He would like for you to visit his website .  I sat huddled at my desk, face pressed into palms supported by elbows propped on desktop, staring into the darkness of my own hands…feeling the darkness pressing in from all sides.   The work day was ended.  It was time to go home, a brief ten minute walk from the office.  Yet, I lingered, dreading home…knowing the unfixable problems waiting there…praying that God would show me what to do. My four beautiful children waited at home, bright lights in my life, who I was always pleased to see.  But their mother also ...
Read more