So this week we delve into our final chapter of Cravings, but that doesn’t mean we’re done with this topic or this journey. In fact, this is just the beginning. At least I hope it is. By this point, I hope you’ve made some peace with food and perhaps have learned to weave in some quiet time to eat mindfully, journal, pray, or just sit in silence now and then. Whatever you’ve started during this eight-week process, keep it up. Continue journaling, if that worked for you. Stay in touch with our community here or build community where you are so you don’t have to go it alone. But, more than anything else, take at least a few minutes every day to be with God. Even if the food habits slip or the mindfulness goes out the window now and then, just keep coming back to the God, to the beginning, and start again. There is no failing here. There is no wrong way to do this. We find lessons everywhere, even in the “mistakes,” even when we beat ourselves up because we didn’t measure up to our own expectations. It all takes us to the next place on the path.
From Chapter 8:
“When we live life in balance — bringing prayer, moderation, and mindfulness into our cooking, our eating, and other aspects of our busy lives — we discover what the monastics and other holy men and women have long known: Whether we are feasting or fasting or somewhere in between, food should have a sacred role in our lives. It can be something we sacrifice, something we savor, something we share, and through it all we can remain fulfilled because we are grounded in God, the only One who can satisfy our hungry hearts.”
Feasting and fasting… The start of Lent is just one week away. How can we take what we’ve learned on this Cravings journey and bring it into the forty days of Lent? Can we pick one aspect of this journey and work at it more intensely during the Lenten season? Maybe there’s something that has nothing to do with food that we now realize gets in the way of our happiness. Begin there. Our sacrifices during Lent don’t have to be food fasts. We can give up gossip or social media, too much TV or too much unnecessary work. Or maybe it’s food, plain and simple. You don’t necessarily have to cut out a certain food; you can add in more mindfulness or perhaps cook more simply. But whatever we choose, we have to weave prayer through it and give it a real spiritual intention. Remember, fasting without prayer is just a diet. The principles we’ve practiced these past few weeks were good preparation for what’s to come.
I plan to keep coming back here throughout Lent to check in, so if these blogs posts have helped in any way, please come back and touch base during Lent. I will admit that I worry that maybe I’ve let the tribe down. Maybe I wasn’t present enough. If so, I apologize. If there’s anything I did not provide during this journey in terms of support or feedback, please comment here or email me privately so we can talk about it further. I’m toying with the idea of a summer retreat weekend in the lower Adirondack Mountains based on our Cravings Tribe. I’ll keep you posted if that looks like it’s going to become a possibility.
Thank you for being here. Thank you for being part of our Cravings Tribe. I hope it helped in some small way. See you back here as we get ready for the next leg of the journey: Lent.
Our musical inspiration for the week: Touch the Sky by Hillsong UNITED:
“My heart beating, my soul breathing
I found my life when I laid it down
Upward falling, spirit soaring
I touch the sky when my knees hit the ground”
