Here's the other fasting thought that's been going through my head recently: sometimes fasting sticks.
Not fasting-fasting. Not the serious fasting the Eastern Orthodox do, for instance, where they basically go completely vegan, with one full meal a day and two other smaller meals that together don't add up to a second complete meal. (This is what I've read, if I'm wrong, I hope any EO readers will feel free to correct me.) Or the sort of fasting that means really truly going without any food at all. That sort of fasting could kill you if you continued it year-round. (Especially the second!)
No, what I'm talking about is the kind of fasting popular with my crowd. The "I'm fasting from TV", "I'm fasting from chocolate", "I'm fasting from video-games" kind. I've noticed that from time to time, these fasts stick. These fasts are the "I'm giving up something superfluous" fasts. And, from time to time, maybe even more often than not, in giving up something superfluous, something that you are allowed to have, but that is perhaps not the best of things in which to indulge, you realize that it really is, well, superfluous.
Take the video games example. If you give them up for forty days, however much you like them, you may begin to see that they were replacing other, better things in your life. Time for prayer, say, or friendships. (I'm using video games just 'cause it's something I've never given up, so it feels very "for example" to me - not 'cause I think they're particularly awful or anything.)
I don't know. Again, I have nowhere profound to go with my fasting musing. Just noting that you should be careful what vanity you give up. Because in forty days, you might very well learn how very well you can live without it.
peace of Christ to you,
Jessica
p.s. I haven't mentioned before, but perhaps I should, given the audience a homemaking blog is likely to attract: if you're pregnant, nursing, under eighteen, have an eating disorder, or anything similar, food fasts are probably not for you. I'm not expert, and am not claiming to be, and would suggest you check with priest, doctor and/or parent, as is appropriate. Actually, that might apply to non-pregnant, non-lactating types too. :D
1 comment:
Hey, Jess. Regarding the Orthodox fasting practices, my understanding from my church family in the Antiochian Orthodox church is that those of the Orthodox Eastern rite do the route you described as "vegan" while the Orthodox Western rite folk do the meal and half per day and only fast from meat on Fridays. In other words, we EITHER go vegetarian and eat normal quantities, OR we keep the options but cut the quantity, not both. For pregnant and lactating folk (like me), we do the Roman/Protestant give-up-something-you-like fast such as no sweeties. :o)
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