It’s hard to know exactly who to blame for what’s going on with the weather, but I blame the groundhog. I can hardly believe we’re getting another big winter storm and the snow isn’t even completely melted from the previous one. Capital Weather Gang is calling for three to six inches of accumulation for us, which would be fun and cozy if we weren’t just getting over weeks of snowcrete.

There are signs of spring as well, though. I was delighted on Thursday and Friday when the snow cover melted enough that I could see the snowdrops starting their glory run. Every year after they bloom I’ve been carefully transplanting a few, well maybe more than a few, and we’re starting to have a little glade between us and Will and Kelsey that feels magical in the very early spring.

The hellebores are starting to peek their blooms up as well, they’re not open yet, but they sort of shoulder out of the ground, and when I was out taking pictures of the snowdrops and noticed a few purple shoulders peeking out from last season’s raggedy foliage. Snowdrops are always the start of spring for me, followed closely by hellebores and then daffodils.

This morning I was listening to Pádraig Ó Tuama on Poetry Unbound, and I learned that the word Lent comes from the Old English word for spring, lencten. And even though it sounds like the Modern English word lengthen, it’s not exactly the same, although it is a reference to longer days. Which is perhaps the most visible sign of spring to me.

I really love how mixed up everything gets when any religion meets culture. Lent is the English word for today, but in other languages, but especially in Latin, the period is named for the forty days, and in fact today is known as Quadragesima Sunday, or Fortieth Sunday. We can get a sense of how Lent has evolved since the ancient times - since we count forty days differently now, skipping Sundays and going all the way to Easter.

Today would have been the start of the fasting season in some places, and if you’re not already set on your practice for this year, it’s not too late.

Actually on the topic of it not being too late, I’ve messed up my fast every single day so far. I’ve been keeping a fast with no food and water from sunrise to sundown. Part of what inspired me this year is that Ramadan and Lent started on the same day, which doesn’t happen very often. It’s not impossible this will be the last time in my life, or at least the last time that I’m young and healthy enough for this kind of fast.

It’s a form of fasting that’s got ancient roots, and was for the first few centuries of the Christian church the normal way to do it, actually I don’t know if they did sunrise, they might have only eaten after sundown, but abstaining from food and water during the day for forty days does have a history.

In the book of Exodus in the Old Testament, it’s how Moses communes with God when he gets the ten commandments:

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write down these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.” Moses was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant—the Ten Commandments.

We’re going to come back to Moses in a minute, but I want to finish a different thought first, which is that during my four-days-so-far of fasting, I’ve found myself mindlessly sticking something in my mouth to eat it at least once every day. On Thursday I went to a cut flower meeting where one of my friends had made lemon poppy seed sourdough, and I remembered my fast just as I was swallowing my second bite. Or on Saturday when I was cooking dinner, I grabbed a bit of fried potato and popped it in my mouth to eat, just out of habit.

Part of the reason I’m sharing this is just to say that there’s no such thing as breaking a streak during Lent, we just start anew with each breath. If you had a hard time with setting your intent or keeping your intent, Quadrasegesima Sunday is a great time to reconnect to it, but so is every following day.

I’m reminded of the verse in Lamentations that says, “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” I try to remember that whenever I’m starting over, which your mama reminds me is every time I take in a breath.

We’ve talked about this before, but there are actually forty-six days between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday, which means there are also six feast days, canonically each of the Sundays starting with today. I’m celebrating my fast a little differently, still keeping with the forty days, but I’m being flexible about if the feast day happens on Sunday or on a different day, for instance if Zoe and I decide to brave the thundersnow tomorrow and meet for lunch, that will be my feast day instead of today. Although the weather is not looking auspicious.

I want to get back to the topic of Moses and his forty day fast, though. The next verse after he comes down from the mountain with the tablets, we learn this:

When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord.

I doubt this will happen to me, and I don’t think it’s just because I missed a couple days, but apparently I wouldn’t be the one to notice if it did happen anyway. But I do want to zero in on the end part of that verse, where it says that Moses had spoken with the Lord.

The point of Lent is not only to give something up, it’s the time for Big Renewal. It’s the time to speak with the Lord, to serve others, and maybe even if my face isn’t glowing with the radiance of the shekinah glory, it is indeed my hope that there will be a noticeable change wrought in me, even if I don’t know exactly what it is.

I hope you are all having a good fast, and if it’s not perfect, well, I see you there, and I welcome you to the human race. I love you all so much, and I hope you’re warm and cozy in this snowstorm, which with any luck may be our last of the season, although according to the groundhog we might still have a couple more weeks of this coming.

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