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This morning I set out my Lenten spiral and spent a few hours decluttering and cleaning as I make room in my heart and living space for what Lent holds for me this year. I know what the traditional three aspects of Lent are: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. And I also know the tendency of humans to turn Lent into a rules-based, rather than a heart-centered practice. It’s so easy to think, “I’m doing it better” or “She’s doing it wrong” and miss the point entirely.

In the past, I’ve done the giving up of sweets or wine or chocolate. And I’ve fasted from gossip or critical talk about myself or others. This year I am practicing laying down my burdens. I have some things I’ve been carrying for several years, looking backward with regret and anguish over my perceived wrongdoings and mistakes. As if I could go back in time or make anything right that way. Our minds know we can’t but feelings can take a lot longer. Grief takes as long as it takes.

But as I wrote about on Substack yesterday, I finally feel ready. I am letting all of that go. I’m laying it down as Lent starts. I know burdens are not so easily gotten rid of when we’ve carried them for so long. So I will have to practice this letting go. Again and again. Fasting from these burdens of shame, guilt, regret, punishing myself, etc.

Last night I finished reading Yung Pueblo’s book Inward. Serendipity surprises me with its stunning ability to appear at just the right time. I started Inward last year and then all these months later right where I picked it up was right where I needed to read. From the first page I started reading he mentions releasing burdens, loving oneself, liberation, healing, etc.

Page 111 says:

letting go is medicine
that heals the heart

letting go is a habit 
that requires practice

letting go is best done
through feeling, not thinking

Page 186 says:


she's an explorer,
unafraid to travel
within her heart and mind,
ready to discover new places
to heal--releasing burdens
and planting wisdom wherever
her awareness takes her.

Page 197:

The forces 
of the universe
support those 
who work at
healing themselves

And page 210:

as our ability to
know and heal ourselves
deepens, we will be better
equipped to examine the
world more carefully
and heal it more
effectively

So back to Lent. I will be practicing this laying down of burdens this Lenten season. As I usually choose a book to read for Lent, this year I am reading Christine Valters Paintners’ A Different Kind of Fast: Feeding Our True Hungers During Lent. The chapters all seem to resonate with what I’m hungering for and will support my ongoing spiritual deconstruction.

She wrote each chapter as an invitation: Ash Wednesday Week starts with Fast from Consuming and Embrace Simplicity; Week 1 is Fast from Multitasking and Inattention and Embrace Full Presence to the Moment; Week 2 is Fast from Scarcity Anxiety and Embrace Radical Trust in Abundance; Week 3 is Fast from Speed and Rushing and Embrace Slowness and Pausing; Week 4 is Fast from Holding it All Together and Embrace Tenderness and Vulnerability; Week 5 is Fast from Planning and Deadlines and Embrace Unfolding and Ripening; and the last week is Fast from Certainty and Embrace Mystery and Waiting.

So this is what I’m purposing and what I’m reading for Lent. If you’re an observer of Lent, perhaps you’d like to join me in reading through Paintners’ book A Different Kind of Fast: Feeding Our True Hungers During Lent. I’m opening up a private chat for paid subscribers of my Substack, Old Soul Stories, to share thoughts, questions, experiences of reading this book during the Lenten season. I’d love to connect with you there. You can subscribe here.

If you observe Lent, what are your thoughts or plans for this season?