50 Days: That's Halfway, People

Lookie, lookie, lookie! After today, I will always have fewer posts left than I have already written. This is the halfway point. Now I just have to do again what I have already done before. Another fifty in a row. Let's get 'r done!

Anyway, it's Sunday again. Fast Sunday, for those of the Latter-day Saint persuasion. That means waking up, wandering into the kitchen, grabbing the cereal, and then whimpering when you remember that you can't eat for the next two meals.

Okay, so that's not the mindset you're supposed to have. But it usually happens to me when I first wake up. Then I do the whole fasting-with-a-purpose thing, praying to help me focus, and the rest of the day isn't so bad. But that first moment in the kitchen, when my mouth is half open and my tongue is sneaking out, the longing for food rumbles through me like thunder.

Fasting is an interesting idea. To me, it calls to mind the scripture that says, "he that loses his life for my sake, shall find it." (If that's a misquote, don't bother telling me; it's close enough.) We give up food and water - which are necessary for life, not just a pleasant hobby - for a few hours so that by forsaking the physical hungers we can focus on quenching the spiritual hungers. The body and the spirit make up the soul, but sometimes one has to step aside and let the other be cared for.

And the sacrament bread tastes SOOO good on Fast Sunday! There's a whole "bread of life" and "living water" thing going on there, but it's late and I don't want to get into it. I'm just thinking out loud, thinking on paper, whatever cliché makes sense for a blog. But I hope that something I said made you think for a second, because that's what Fast Sunday is really about isn't it? It's not about being hungry, it's about being thoughtful. Consciously forsaking the physical realm is what helps us to do that.

Today's Movie: "Arsenic and Old Lace"