Happy Ash Wednesday

Today begins another season of Lent. It's a Christian season that happens every year around March, symbolic of the 40 days and nights that Jesus spent wandering in the desert, resisting the devil's temptations and finally emerging after having fasted this entire time. For me, it means 40 days of giving something up, not eating meat on Fridays, and fasting on Good Friday. In the past I've given up many material things such as ice cream, candy, and soda - which, ended up lasting an entire year, just to prove to myself that I could. Now, I barely drink soda, which is a great accomplishment in my book. Though I can rarely resist Ginger Ale if offered.

I digress. Other years I've given up less tangible things, such as not fighting with my brother, abstaining from cursing, and refraining from lazy habits. This year, my plan was to give up something material, or internet-related, but I decided to do something different. Lately, the relationship between my parents and me has been somewhat strained, at times characterized by a mutual sense of disrespect and indifference. Therefore, I decided that for these next 40 days, I would turn back to my humble ways of respect for my parents, barring the many different stances we hold on a number of issues.

In past couple of years, I stopped trying to be the 'ideal' son, and began to focus on bettering my own life without aiming to please my parents. A lot of good has come out of it, but I fear that I may have gone to the opposite extreme, at least to some degree. Therefore, my goal for this Lenten season is to backtrack a little bit and find a middle ground which will leave both parties happy. I'd like to believe that a large percentage of conflicts have a 'middle ground' solution to them, so I aim to find this one's middle ground, or at least get close, before Easter.

Here's to a healthy, healing forty days.