It's that time of year again... Pancake Day! Inevitably, those buttery, syrup dripping morsels give way to the less indulgent days of Lent. As a Christian tradition, Lent has been a time of reflection during the forty days prior to Easter. In the past I've tried to do the conventional "give-up-something-for-Lent" by forgoing chocolate, caffeine, sugar even TV. In contemplating an idea for Lent a couple of things got me thinking:
1) "The Uninformed Masses"- a criticism in a local paper claimed that despite the widespread use of social media, news apps & the availability of information on the internet people still choose to be uninformed. I was initially dismissive of the letter writer's accusations until I realized that I was one of those people! Not because I don't care about the issues; I just don't hunt down world issues in my daily routine of preschool drop off & pick up, story reading, grocery shopping, toilet training, email replying, making food, cleaning up food, laundry, etc. I rarely watch the news and don't even listen to the radio- Raffi has top billing in our vehicle. An excuse? Perhaps.
2) Groupon- not just Groupon, but the multitude of websites dedicated to daily money-saving deals. These sites have the amazing power to reach hundreds of thousands of subscribers to build up the clientele of a previously unknown business. I began wondering if it was possible to have a more altruistic "Groupon"-type site?

My thinking gave way to the idea of using Lent as a time to dig deeper into some of these difficult issues while finding people or organizations that offer hope. I thought that by documenting my journey through Facebook or a blog I'd be compelled to post something each day and be a kind of humanitarian "Groupon". So today I launch, Forty my Lenten "project".

You can expect a daily website link and a brief blurb about why that someone, or organization, has inspired me. By focusing on hope amidst tragedy I hope to glimpse a little bit of Easter each day!