MAGNIFICENT MONDAY
Rituals: A Fresh Start
I’ve got a question: Are you going to eat pancakes tomorrow? I suspect more people will think of Mardi Gras than Shrove Tuesday, but both have to do with recognizing the following day – known by Christians around the world as Ash Wednesday. It is the beginning of Lent, which is a forty-day period of fasting prior to celebrating Easter.
Pope Gregory I sometime around 600 AD issued an edict to the effect that during Lent “we abstain from flesh, meat, and from all things that come from flesh, as milk, cheese, and eggs.”
There was also the notion that Lent consisted not only of fasting, but of abstinence. Some legends have it that Mardi Gras was in part a reaction against these restrictions, so the day before Ash Wednesday become a day of carnal indulgence.
The ritual of having pancakes on Shrove Tuesday was seen as a way of using up all of the dairy products in the household: eggs, milk, and butter.
Lent itself was a way for Christians to remember and honor the forty days Jesus spent in wilderness fasting and seeking God’s will for his life.
It seems to me that as religion has become less prominent in our culture, we’ve lost touch with rituals designed to help us connect with our spiritual side, and we’ve lost touch with part of our Inner Magnificence.
So, I’m inviting – at least those of us who wear glasses, even on occasion – to create a daily ritual: begin each day by cleaning your glasses. It’s that simple. Start the new day by wiping the grit and grime from the lens through which we look at the world, and consciously wipe away all the “stuff” from yesterday. Resolve to look at each day from a perspective not clouded by yesterday’s experiences.
No matter how “good” yesterday was, it is over. No matter how “bad” yesterday was, it is over.
My invitation is simple: Create a morning ritual to start every day. Wipe off the debris of yesterday and – like a child – enjoy the potential of the gift of a new day.
It’s like eating pancakes on Shrove Tuesday; get rid of all the stuff you don’t want to have in your cupboards or refrigerators. Start your day neither resting on your laurels nor lamenting the past. It’s a simple practice that will allow you to connect with the best version of yourself, your Inner Magnificence.
The extent to which you accept my invitation is the extent to which you’ll be able to say, “I feel good about being me!” … and that’s a promise!
P.S. Where’s the maple syrup?
