Giving Up to Gain During Lent

It's 10am in the morning and I'm checking Facebook on my phone. The funny memes and daily commentaries absorb me. I laugh, I cry, I'm totally immersed in the world buzzing through this glowing screen. Then I see a status from a friend of mine. She's vowing to give up social media for Lent. The idea strikes a chord within me and it does not let go. 

Give up Facebook? Twitter? INSTAGRAM? Can this be done? Even while I'm asking myself this question a voice within me answers, yes, yes it can. Do it. I'm inspired. Everything within me is saying to follow suit. And I do. I write a status informing my friends on fb and twitter. But what I really feel like doing is telling the world. I'm giving it up!! That's what I would shout, like an addict who has finally realized that the drug truly does have them hooked and they're desperate to be free of it, desperate to live. 

My friends reacted with a mix of surprise, disbelief and well wishes. "Will you survive?" "What will you do during all that time?" And the ever popular, "goodluck". It was as if I had announced to them that I would be giving away my worldly possessions and climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. In a way it really felt like that. I was giving up something so familiar and safe to me, something that had occupied my hours and sleepless nights in exchange for...what? It occurred to me that perhaps I was giving up my online life in exchange for gaining some relevance in this life. The one I stand breathing in right now. What a powerful exchange. 

It was a brave new world. Suddenly I had all this free time. What would I do with it? I wanted to make sure that days would not be spend clinging to the mundane. Spring is coming and there will be much to do. And besides, I'm in New York City!!  To say there's nothing to do here would be the equivalent to saying there is no sand in the desert. It's impossible. So I'm making a schedule, leaving room for spontaneity. I'll visit friends, spend more time with family. I'll focus on my faith and on discovering myself. I'll work on my writing and my creative outlets. And mainly, I'll be fearless. Life is full of experiences just waiting to be discovered. The days are getting longer and I feel freer. No one said it would be easy to just cut myself off from those funny Grumpy Cat memes, but I think being able to really live in the moment and appreciate life for what it is, will more than make up for it. 

Wish me luck.