Staying in touch

Gotta love Instagram... ;)

I often stink at keeping up with old friends, especially ones far away. I've let some great friendships slip and while I sometimes regret it, I think it also is a fact of life. Some friendships are temporary. They only last as long as you both need them to. The ones that can last long-distance also seem to be the ones that last long-term.

Transitioning to a new city has been incredibly tough for me. In the midst of the difficulties of finding and participating in a community here, the long-distance friendships that I have been able to maintain are priceless. Skype is a Godsend. And snail mail has been wonderful, too. Yesterday I got yet another letter in the mail from a very dear friend. It was about as close to a genuine conversation and a great big hug as you could get in a letter. I never thought I would be much of letter writer, but somehow because the other means by which I usually would keep up with this friend are gone (she has limited internet access and poor cellphone reception in her area), I've really enjoyed learning how to communicate in this form. Granted, one of the reasons it works so well is because we are both just scatter-brained enough to keep going on for pages and pages. We've been able to put our voices into our letters, so our humor and personalities come across.

I don't plan on picking up letter-writing as a serious hobby through which I communicate with all my close friends. Things like this work so much better when there is a real reason to do it, not just the sentimentality of "oh, wouldn't that be nice?" Just as tradition for tradition's sake can be deadening, letter-writing for letter-writing's sake misses the point - connection with those you love. There is nothing wrong with connecting through Skype or Facebook or email instead of through paper and postage stamps. Meaningful communication should be the important thing, not the medium.

Lent: Contemplation and Action

I mentioned to someone this week in passing that I had given something up for Lent (as an explanation, not simply to blab). The question came up: why? Why do people do this? Being a rather low church Protestant, I responded with a "What Lent Means to Me"-type answer. I understand some of the tradition and hope to learn more over time, but for now my conviction is an amalgamation of what I've heard and what I've thought myself.

Lent is preparation for the Easter celebration, a 40 day preparation. Through fasting and meditation, we prepare ourselves to mourn and be thankful for the work that Christ did through His death and, most importantly, to celebrate the victory of His resurrection. By going without for an extended period of time and then participating in the restorative nature of Easter Sunday, we experience on a microlevel how God has taken us out of mourning and suffering into life and joy through Christ. Experiencing sacrifice and then celebration on a tangible level helps us to remember the greatest Sacrifice, and the greatest Celebration (in which we are always participating).

Unfortunately, I (as I am sure others do) easily treat Lent as a kind of New Year's. My sacrifice for Lent becomes little more than a resolution. "It would be good for me to have less of that. Maybe I will give that up for Lent." And then I can pat myself on the back, knowing after going without for 40 days, that I could really give up that if I had to. Silly me. I want to embrace a greater vision for Lent, otherwise I don't see the purpose in participating. Empty motions may be pretty, but they are still empty. I would rather embrace those motions with their meaning intact. Lent does have significant meaning. I don't want to discard it simply because I am a weak participant. I will keep trying.