Adding on for Lent

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One of my dad’s favorite expressions has always been “when in Rome…”

I think I have carried that to some extent in how I approach life.  So when at Carondelet, I figure I need to live the full experience and that means engaging in the Lent process.  This year, I decided to go beyond the “no processed sugar — including alcohol” type resolution I had previously set for myself and I adopted the option presented during our mass this year that Lent could be adding something instead of removing something.

So I pondered what I could add… What resonated for a variety of reasons was for me to discover Brene Brown… I love her Ted Talks but I had never made the leap into actually committing to the process of reading one of her books.  Jen’s post earlier this year about Daring to Lead had placed her back in my consciousness and I was gonna grab that when I decided to ask Google if that was the best book to start with.  The question led me to a Brene blog in which she recommends reading 3 books in order:

  • The Gift of Imperfection
  • Daring Greatly
  • Rising Strong
So that was that, from the proverbial horse’s mouth, my mission for the 40 days that lay ahead of me.  Challenge accepted.  What I did not know then that I know now is that Brene was filming an hour and fifteen minute special on Netflix called the “Call to Courage” which essentially gives you a readers’ digest of the three books and is absolutely fabulous.
My takeaways from my Lenten journey are multiple… first on the process of committing to something different for 40 days is powerful and relevant.  Brene was what I needed at this point in

my life, at times as a validation for the journey I have traveled and at others as an invitation to “rumble” with things that will help me grow.  Her basic foundation is about developing the courage to accept — embrace your imperfections… to live authentically and ultimately to understand that courage and vulnerability are two sides of the same coin and that one can not exist without the other.  Brene gets added to the list of bad-ass women that help move our world forward.

I still want to get to Jen’s book recommendation but I think I need to sit with what I got for a couple months and attack that one over the summer.  If you have an hour, check out Brene’s special, it is worth the detour… and she is funny and funny is good.

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