Blogging about my Lenten fasts never works out, but I like the little snippets I've written down here. Here I am, year three, and the power of Lent 2011 is still with me. I've stayed a vegan ever since then, now as passionately as ever, and the whole family has followed suit. It's wonderful.
This year for Lent, with no preparation at all, I decided to do a semi-Daniel fast again. The vegan part is just normal everyday eating for me, but I've cut out 100% of sweets, which is NOT normal. My grad school diet is, not exaggerating, about 15% cookies. Of course I feel great since I cut them out.
I'm adding occasional homemade fresh vegetable juice, and I allow myself cups of coffee when academic deadlines demand the caffeine, but I use it more as a drug than a pleasure (I've sort of lost my taste for it).
I've had one weird craving so far, and that was a ham sandwich with mayonnaise, which I haven't eaten in many years, even before I became a vegan. I think sometimes I just long for really normal American food because it would be so easy to find. Fluffy white spongey bread, deli meat, mayo, a little lettuce, yellow mustard. I'll never stop being a vegan because my health is perfect, but simplicity and convenience when it comes to food might be something I always miss.
Grad school has been a subdued spiritual time for me. There was a flurry of activity and change before I got here, but it has been extremely muted for my whole time at Yale. There has been so much going on with my intellect and my emotions that I've definitely been aware of my spiritual growth, but it's looked very different from my pre-Yale life. I am starting to see glimmers of a return of my prayer life and my desire to praise God and talk to Him in my journal, but they are sparse. I sense a big change when I graduate in a few months, plan the wedding, get married, and start my Vita Nuova as Mrs. Illingworth.
So the goals for the fast are:
1) Finish my masters degree with some degree of success
2) Get ready for the powerful winds of change that are about to blow through my life
3) Start to think about what virtue looks like as a married person, although I'll really focus on this over the summer as I prepare for the wedding.
4) Reflect on the many ways I have learned to be loving to people who have nothing to do with Christianity. Yale has brought an incredible diversity of people into my life, and I cherish the relationships I have with them. It has been an exceptionally positive experience, but I look forward to think about it more to see what's going on in these loves I have with people who are so different from me.
5) Really make the most out of my last few months at Yale. I love this place so much, and I want to see how I can draw the best of it into my next life chapter.
6) Tune myself to listening to the Lord as he prompts me with prayer and praise. Maybe I could even start occasionally going to church again sometime in the next few months? I think I have been to church four times in the past two years. I am interested to see where that goes.
That's all that's on my mind right now, and it's time to get back to a paper that is half done that is due in 8 hours. Miles to go before I sleep, and Miles to go before I sleep.
