Meat Tuesday!

Christians all over the world know today as Shrove Tuesday, or Pancake Tuesday, or Mardi Gras (literally translating to Fat Tuesday) - but in my world, its meat tuesday. You see, the idea is that before you start lent, a period of fasting, you get rid of all the oils and sugar and treats in your house. So some brilliant person at some point in history figured this added up to making pancakes. Well for the last..hmm...7 years...I have given up something for lent. The idea is to give up something that is a luxury, often in the form of food, and then whenever you think about how you want it, it will remind you to put that time and energy and devotion into prayer and living a better life. I am giving up meat, and if you know me at all and how much of a meatasaurus I am then you will know that this if going to be even more painful than the year I gave up fried foods while living in a university residence!

I even did a bit of research about lent and learned that Ash Wednesday is a day of penitence, to cleanse the soul, and then you get to start fresh with this season of fasting to help you meditate on your new life. Now seriously - how great is that?! You get to wipe the slate clean, and start over. All religious stuff aside - how great would it be if we could all wipe our slates clean?

I have been thinking about this a lot lately given my time in Psychiatry. For so many of my patients it seems like if you could just wipe their slate clean - wipe out the pain, and the trauma, and the abuse, and the drugs...then maybe they'd have a fighting chance to get back to some semblance of normal. And for their kids - wipe out the memory of mom bringing home strange men, or getting paid in drugs to babysit. For their families - wipe out the hard times and the troubles and not knowing whether you are fighting with a person or a disease.

Deep thoughts to contemplate on a Tuesday night....must be all the pancakes and whip cream and fruit making me all delirious :)

Lots of love
Pamela