Ash Wednesday

After careful consideration I've decided to give up impatience, being judgemental and selfishness for Lent. Why not shoot for the moon? While others are giving up their morning lattes, I've decided to become a better person.(Not that I'm judging their decision to give up $4 coffees.) I'm going to embrace the Golden Rule and do my best to treat others the way I'd like to be treated. Last year I gave up wine, which believe me, was no easy task. This year I"ll require the wine to calm my restless, gossipy, nerves.

Off the top of my head, I'm thinking that the following predictable scenarios will prove to be a challenge for me.

Driving on our 2 lane county roads with no safe place to pass. There's always some dumb, oblivious driver going way below the already too slow speed limit, just puddling their way through life with no consideration for the other good drivers on the road who need to get their kids to karate on time. This is a daily cause of aggravation for me. So, being patient and not judging that driver will be hard.

If my husband gets a cold or flu, I will be tested. Once, many years ago, my husband placed his thumb and finger together as close as they could go without touching. He waved this gesture near my face while he was laying in bed and whimpering from some ailment. He told me that if he could change just one thing about me, he said weakly, "just one little thing, Janis", it would be that I would have just "this" much sympathy for him. This apparent lack of empathy for the ill must run in my family for when my sisters husband got the flu a few years back he made her promise never to go into nursing. (I say "apparent lack of..." because my sister and I defend ourselves by saying, it's not that we don't feel sorry for our spouses, we just want them to suffer in silence.)

I know that I'm not painting a very pretty picture of myself, but at least I recognize these failings and plan to be better.

One more note: I told my son that I was going to try to be a nicer person during Lent and he told me that at least I could look forward to being myself in a few weeks.

I'll keep you posted..........