Inner Lent & Your Relationships
Today is Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent. Will you ignore this time of a deep 40 day practice around meeting temptation because of the the old misinterpretation of this season of the soul by institutionalized Christianity? Would you pay attention to it if it was about more than giving up chocolate or TV?
Here’s an Imagine Self/Inner Year suggestion on considering the three temptations of Lent and how they live in our relationships.
1. The temptation to turn stones to bread. Do you spend your soul forces trying to turn a relationship made of “stone” into a vital soul nourishing “bread of love?” What special powers do you think you can conjure up to make that happen?
2. The temptation to leap off the pinnacle and let the angels lift you back up without your feet ever touching the ground. Do you risk your evolving commitment to another by grounding your relationship in truth, harmony, and devotion by always wanting to keep your love magical. Do you think the proof of romantic love will always return you to the high, the rush, and the intensity of a peak experience?
3. The temptation to rule over all you see. Do you fall into the selfish notion that you rule the relationship? Do you feel you are the one who defines what needs get met and how? Do you see the other as merely a supporting player in your story?
Can you spend 40 days facing these relationship temptations and vanquishing them?
Valentine’s Day and Your Relationships
Valentine’s Day is about the declaration and celebration of the bond of love. Declaration and the renewal of the declaration is a spiritual deed of the heart. Can you speak the love you feel for another? How will you speak your love? Spoken word? Written word? The speech that lives in a gaze, a smile, a touch?
How will you celebrate your love? Celebration can be richly sensuous and earthly. The cards, the flowers, the candy, the candles, the dining, the wine, the lovemaking.
I think it is so important to do both: declare and celebrate. Love is earthly and sacred.
Share your Valentine’s Day thoughts and experiences with comments here.
