Preparing for Ash Wednesday: Thursday's Reflection

Ash Wednesday is in a few days, and oh no! I haven't decided what my spiritual practice will be during Lent. 

My inbox is full of opportunities. Take this online class or this one or that one or here's an email about a new book of devotions suitable for lectio divina during Lent. Or what about all the books with a Lenten focus already on my shelves? Are there podcasts devoted to Lenten practices. Probably. 

Maybe it is time to return to a focused practice of centering prayer--do it faithfully every day, twice a day, as Father Keating suggests.
Maybe I should consider fasting one day a week, preferably Wednesday because I would feel even more self-righteous when I go to the evening service. Last year I hosted labyrinth sessions every Wednesday evening. Should I do that again?

What should I give up? What should I add in? Is this the time to try something new, something outside of my comfort zone or is this the time to return to a practice used in the past, but kept in my back pocket for when it might be needed? Or do I deepen my core practices--writing in my journal and sitting in quiet meditation each morning? 

I feel a bit overwhelmed with ideas and possibilities, and I wonder how my word for the year, "fullness," intersects with Lent. 

Of course, what I most need to do--right now--is move into silence and allow the voice of God to whisper in my heart. Maybe what I need to do is to let a practice choose me, find me for these sacred days. 

Maybe I need to remember that everyday is sacred.

Maybe I need to remember that a Lenten practice, any kind of spiritual practice, regardless of one's tradition, is not about the doing, but about the being with God. 

                                 It could take you days
                                 to wander these rooms.
                                 Forty at least.

                                 And so let this be
                                 a season for wandering,
                                 for trusting the breaking,
                                 for trusting the rupture
                                 that will return to you

                                 to the One who waits,
                                 who watches
                                 who works within
                                 the rending
                                 to make your heart
                                 whole. 
                                              from "Rend Your Heart"
                                              Circle of Grace
                                              Jan Richardson

An Invitation
Do you feel called to a new practice? An old practice? I would love to know.