Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent, a 46-day period of preparation for the joyful Easter celebration. The word lent comes from the Anglo Saxon word lencten, which means "lengthen"; it refers to the longer days of spring.

Lent is about mortality and transformation; death and rebirth. Marcus Borg says, "It means dying to an old way of being, and being born into a new way of being, a way of being centered once again in God."

Quakers don't traditionally celebrate Lent because we live every day being born again, centered in God. Still - I will always jump at a chance for a period of reflection.

Agenda:

1. Read "Hope in the Dark"

2. Simple food plan

3. Make pretzels

4. Hang up the Lent Lady

5. Plant a sabzeh

1. Read "Hope the Dark":

I'm reading a new book, "Hope in the Dark; Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities" by Rebecca Solnit (2016). The forward is Grounds for Hope: "Hope is a gift you don't have to surrender, a power you don't have to throw away. And though hope can be an act of defiance, defiance isn't enough reason to hope."

She also covers the Uses of Uncertainty, one of my favorite/ most difficult concepts. "Hope locates itself in the premises that we don't know what will happen and that in the spaciousness of uncertainty is room to act. ... It's the belief that what we do matters even though how or when it may matter, who and what it may impact, are not things we can know beforehand."

She talks about how hope mushrooms: What we call mushrooms are actually the fruit of a sometimes vast underground fungus. So, too, revolutions that seem spontaneous arrive because of long-term organizing and underground work. Changes in ideas and values are the fruit of work done by writers, scholars, speakers, and activists.

And she talks about The Stories We Tell: She highlights the story we tell about human nature in response to disaster. The assumption is that we are either selfish, chaotic, and violent, or timid, fragile, and helpless. But the truth is that in a disaster we are mostly calm, resourceful, altruistic, and creative. And when we rise to the challenge of working together, we find joy, community, meaning, and hope.

"This was a revolutionary vision of human nature and a revelation that we can pursue our ideals not out of diligence but because when they are realized there's joy, and joy is itself an insurrectionary force against the dreariness and dullness and isolation of everyday life."

2. Simple food plan:

This year for Lent I'm going to fast from anything processed (packaged cookies, crackers, pasta, candy, canned goods, frozen dinners) as much as possible, and that means I'll need to cook and bake my own snacks!

My plan for simple foods this week:

• Wednesday: Make pretzels
• Thursday: Make chewy granola bars
• Friday: Make a pitcher of green smoothies
• Saturday: Experiment with making crackers or sweet potato chips.

3. Make pretzels:
Pretzels are a traditional bread for Lent because they are made with no dairy or eggs.

Pretzels were invented by an Italian monk as a reward to children who learned their prayers. The strips of baked dough are folded to resemble arms crossing the chest. The monks called the breads "little arms" (bracellae). From this Latin word, the Germanic people later coined the term "pretzel." The recipe is here.

4. Hang up the Lent Lady:

Greek children make a paper doll for Lent, called Kyra Sarakosti (Lady Lent). The Kyra always folds her hands in prayer, and she has no mouth because she is fasting. Also, she has seven legs, representing the number of weeks in Lent. Each Saturday, the children fold back a leg as they count down the weeks.

I made a Lady Lent a couple years ago that I can use each year- Now she hangs in my living room as a visual reminder of the countdown to Easter. The instructions are here.

5. Plant a sabzeh:

2022 Sabzeh

Today is a good time to plant the sabzeh, in preparation for Nowruz, the Persian New Year, which begins every year on the Spring Equinox. The sabzeh is a bowl of sprouted grains, a symbol of new life. Since it takes two weeks to get good looking sprouts, we usually start them about now.

Supplies: A shallow bowl, damp soil, grain seeds (lentils and wheat are traditional; we planted grassland oat seeds this year).

Fill the bowl with damp soil, cover the surface well with seeds, and spray daily with water.