Lent

It's that time of year again. Time to shelve the rich desserts and meals, stock up on tuna and fish sticks, and look inwardly for a sacrifice that'll help me be more faithful to God.

I always post some poignant beginning-of-Lent reflection on here, just to have my Lenten practices slowly fade into the background as Lent progresses. I tend to be like that- black and white. If I can't do something 100% and perfectly (or near perfectly), I throw in the towel and re-channel my energy into something I know I *can* do.

It's probably a maturity thing. But in all areas of my life, I'm taking a page from my mentor's book and continually asking myself, "how could I have done that better?"

Perfection is an unattainable ideal. Some say that if you do happen to achieve what we define as 'perfection,' you're not setting your bar high enough.

So I defined a couple of Lenten practices for myself and the bar is pretty high. But my other Lenten practice is to be okay with my own humanity and imperfection. When I do fail to achieve that high bar, I'm forced to ask myself, "how could I have done that better?"

It's actually very liberating...none of us will ever be perfect; it's not even possible. We shouldn't waste one ounce of energy worrying about it. But what can we do to become the best version of our imperfect, human selves, knowing full well that the journey will be full of pitfalls and trials?

I just have to keep trying. The grace is in the journey and as long as we continue to try, we're on the right path.