With no prior planning, I started a fast yesterday morning. It's been so far easier than I thought.
About a year ago, I came across Peter Sewald's Wisdom from the Monastery. I was attracted to the title because of the many years I visited St. Meinrad Archabbey in southern Indiana. Staying at St. Meinrad was an extension of the Holy Weeks I spent in summer-hot Manila. In the Philippines Lent came when the tropical sun burnt everything in its light. Semana santa was hunger and heat.
Yesterday, fasting brought the accumulated memories of Philippine Lenten observances and visits to St. Meinrad. I turned off my computer, didn't answer email nor check my postal mail. I spent the day reading Sewald's book. I decided at six to drive to Half Price to claim my 40% discount. Next time I'll turn the car off, too, but yesterday the drive did not break the rhythm of the fast. However the day could have been more intense had I chosen not to leave the house except to walk.
Fasting gave me a break from the relentless planning and stress that my days have become. Fasting I see how superfluous most of the things I desire really are. I gave up drinking coffee by default. That is a biggie! When I started my sabbatical in late 2007 I would drive to McDonald's just to motivate myself to get out of bed in the morning. Early this year I decided to stop eating breakfast at McDonald's. I would just drive there for my cup of Senior's coffee. Now it's time for even that decaffeinated brew to stop. 49 cents. It's a bargain but I don't need the two packets of Splenda.
I would like to follow the Jewish tradition of fasting Mondays and Thursdays. The early Christians fasted Tuesdays and Fridays to commemorate Good Friday. I could also do just one day a week. I’ll see how this goes. Fasting also whetted my appetite for going lacto-ovo-vegetarian again. I think I can make this work better today than I did when I first tried this in 1986. Back then I gained weight from overdoing carbs.
The FW hard drive from OWC came yesterday. I left the box unopened until this morning. Carbon Copy Cloner is busy cloning my boot-up internal drive unto the new drive. I plan to then use the FW drive as my start-up drive and replace the internal drive with a larger (maybe 1.5 Terrabyte) drive.
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