Day 43: Six Week Update

It is hard to believe it has been six weeks.  Where did the time go?  Here's my final weekly offering of miscellaneous ramblings:

• Omaha as "inter-faith capital of the world?"  From beyond the world of Lenten Ramadan comes this wonderful column from this past Sunday's Omaha World Herald. The "Tri-Faith Initiative" is an Omaha partnership between Temple Israel, The Episcopal Diocese of Nebraska and The American Institute of Islamic Studies and Culture. The current vision of the group is to create an "inter-faith campus" that would include Jewish, Muslim and Christian houses of worship as well as shared space for conferences, workshops and ongoing education and dialog. David Liepert, a Canadian Muslim author and radio host, is quoted as saying that he thinks this venture may be the first of its kind in the world. Hope for peace and understanding springs forth from the fertile soil of America's heartland! 

• And the award for dumbest decision goes to . . .  Looking back on Lenten Ramadan I have to say that the most foolish (and dangerous!) decision I made was to observe the fast while skiing in Colorado. You may recall my experience from Days Three and Four. Skiing pretty hard on Day Three without eating anything and without drinking water was ill-advised and downright dumb. I am certain that Friday night I was suffering from either dehydration or altitude sickness or a combination of both. Only after returning to Omaha and doing some further research did I discover that one is not expected to fast while traveling during Ramadan. Oops. Hindsight is 20/20 I suppose and I should have looked into this prior to the trip. In my defense it was the third and fourth days of Lent and I was very excited and energized for Lenten Ramadan. If we had gone skiing in Week Three I doubt this would have happened.  C'est la vie.

• Things I am most looking forward to in a post-Lent world.  Yesterday several students asked me what I was looking forward to most about Lent being over. There are so many things! The first thing I am looking forward to is the joyful celebration of Easter Sunday. We will be at my in-laws where there is always an abundant spread of food at holidays. Usually I try to hold back and take it easy, not wanting any particular holiday go too much to my waistband, but this year . . . no holds barred! I promise the family that I will try my best to share. In particular, I look forward to the Polish sausage from Frank Stoysich Meats, where I have been procuring this Easter tradition for the past ten years. I always associate good, quality, homemade Polish sausage with Easter ever since my childhood in Indiana (all apologies to my vegetarian friends). A second thing I am looking forward to is sleeping in on the weekends. I am not a huge "late sleeper," but on a Saturday I do enjoy staying in bed until 7:30 or 8:00. During Lenten Ramadan I have had to rise earlier and earlier on the weekends so I can make sure I eat before sunrise. I will welcome this change with open arms and closed eyelids. A third area of anticipation is in being able to eat meals with everyone else. The food will be fresh and hot and I won't feel so voyeuristic watching (and hearing!) other people eat. I'll feel like part of the family again. I am very interested to see how this effects how I eat throughout the day. I foresee less snacking and much more self-control in my eating habits. We shall see. At any rate, as wonderful as this entire experience has been, I am ready to return to "normal."

• Triduum plans.  I always look forward to the celebration of the Triduum, but since the birth of our kids I have not attended the services as often as I would like. This year I am certainly making it a point to fully experience these beautiful liturgies in all their symbolic glory. The evening of Holy Thursday will find us at a soup supper with the Ignatian Associates followed by the Mass of the Lord's Supper at St. John's at Creighton. Mass is at 7:30 and so dinner for me tomorrow night will be pushed back a bit. On Good Friday I will be at the "Walk for Justice" in downtown Omaha. It is a traditional Stations of the Cross which also focuses our prayer for those in our world who suffer crucifixions daily due to the injustices perpetuated by our social structures. If you are in the Omaha area, I encourage you to attend. Bring your walking shoes! I may or may not attend Good Friday services at our parish in the afternoon. It all depends on the timing. Holy Saturday we will be at my in-laws in central Nebraska. I have not attended the Easter Vigil in several years and am eager to be at the Mass celebrated by one of my very best friends who is a priest in Kearney, Nebraska. The Vigil will certainly pose one last challenge. It starts before sunset at 8:00pm and typically runs in the ballpark of one and a half to two hours. Afterwards, we plan on celebrating the Resurrection with libations and the world's best onion rings at "The Cellar." I just might have an entire basket all to myself!  

• One last weigh-in.  A final step on the scale today indicated that I had not lost any additional weight in the past week. My total weight loss for the six weeks of Lent has been ten pounds. I am glad the weight started coming off more slowly toward the end, but I am not sure why as I really did not feel like a changed much in my eating habits this past week from what I had done earlier in Lent. Perhaps my body has just become accustomed to the fasting. At any rate, it is a slimmer me now than on March 9. I am eager to begin some exercise too. I generally avoided strenuous exercise during Lent out of fear of the dehydration I experienced in Colorado. But now I think I am motivated to get up and get moving.

• Shukran.  Or "thank you" in Arabic. Thank you to everyone who has asked a question, said a prayer, posted a comment, passed Lenten Ramadan on to a friend, "liked" a post on facebook or just stumbled upon the blog through a Google search of "ramadan lent pants" (I kid you not). Thank you as well for your openness to seeing Christianity and Islam in what may perhaps be a different light than you are accustomed to. Today has seen the highest traffic yet on the blog and there have been nearly 1400 pageviews since Ash Wednesday. Maybe together we can change the attitudes of fear and suspicion that so often permeate discussions of religion in our world.