Last Easter a lady asked me what I sacrificed for Lent. I told her I was not a Catholic. She was surprised, but persisted. "Surely you must celebrate Christmas?" I told her, "No ma'am. I don't." She was petrified. She asked, "So what do you celebrate?"
When I got Easter as the theme for the week, this little story popped into head. I read about Easter, Easter eggs, why Easter eggs got the red and green color, about the Easter bunny and, in particular, about Lent. Out of curiosity I checked other religions. All religions advocate some form of abstinence! Islam has Ramadan with 30 days of fasting. Hinduism has different styles of fasting including a 41 day period of abstinence from non-vegetarian food, cutting hair and shaving to having sex. So on and so forth.
That gave me an idea. Why wait for that one period of the year to abstain from food? What if I fasted one day of the week? Every week. Say, Friday. I would also donate that day's worth of my food intake to charity. It could be money, food...or, volunteer my time to a charitable cause.
It will be tough. But, I know that if I persist and focus on the cause, I can do it. As Toastmasters we can pursue this as a collective effort or as an individual pursuit. I believe it is a just cause...it is a healthy choice. It could be spiritual, religious and whatever else you can think of to support your belief system.
When I got Easter as the theme for the week, this little story popped into head. I read about Easter, Easter eggs, why Easter eggs got the red and green color, about the Easter bunny and, in particular, about Lent. Out of curiosity I checked other religions. All religions advocate some form of abstinence! Islam has Ramadan with 30 days of fasting. Hinduism has different styles of fasting including a 41 day period of abstinence from non-vegetarian food, cutting hair and shaving to having sex. So on and so forth.
That gave me an idea. Why wait for that one period of the year to abstain from food? What if I fasted one day of the week? Every week. Say, Friday. I would also donate that day's worth of my food intake to charity. It could be money, food...or, volunteer my time to a charitable cause.
It will be tough. But, I know that if I persist and focus on the cause, I can do it. As Toastmasters we can pursue this as a collective effort or as an individual pursuit. I believe it is a just cause...it is a healthy choice. It could be spiritual, religious and whatever else you can think of to support your belief system.
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