Day Forty!

Day Forty has arrived! My lent "project" has certainly led me down many different roads and caused me to look at issues right in my own corner of the world and places a world away.

By blogging about the various issues I had hoped to become more informed about the world around me. I think I've not only become more informed, but more aware. Each day as I was searching out blog inspirations, I noticed things I hadn't seen before. I became more aware of how I used my time. Writing a daily blog post was not as easy. The issues required more research and more pondering than I'd anticipated. And I began pondering not just the blog issues, but also my personal life.

Time. It's something we all make choices about. I am notoriously poor at judging how much time I need to complete a task. A 1/2 hour set aside in the afternoon (during my girls' "rest" time") turned into 1 hour and into another hour in the evening. I became much more aware of how I choose to use my time. Writing a shorter blog post was often a choice to spend more time with my girls or my husband.

Personal Fulfillment. We all want to do something that brings us satisfaction and hopefully helps others in the process. I found it very gratifying to be expanding my knowledge and having the added challenge of packaging that new found knowledge into a blog post. This realization had me reflecting on what I do day-to-day and how I feel about myself.

It's been a great journey- intellectually, emotionally, spiritually. Perhaps, exactly what one hopes to get out of a Lenten discipline. And now it's time to move onto Easter. (And not just the indulgence of chocolate eggs!) Easter embodies HOPE. Easter says to me that I am not alone, that there is grace for my failures and that new life, hope, is in the most difficult circumstances.

So will I be back for another 40 days next Lent? I can't say for sure. However, here's a re-cap of the previous 39 days. 39 days of people offering Hope!

Day 1: Tiny Bundles @ Surrey Food Bank

Day2: Oak Ave Clothes Closet

Day 3: Thrift Stores

Day 4: Poverty: 25 in 5, Make Poverty History

Day 5: Full Day Kindergarten

Day 6: Downtown Eastside: Union Gospel Mission, First United

Day 7: DTES: Community Voicemail

Day 8: DTES: Knitting Grannies

Day 9: DTES: Teen Volunteers

Day 10: Wealth Beyond a Bank Account

Day 11: DTES: Sisterwatch

Day 12: (aka Day 31 B) Surrey Homelessness & Housing Society

Day 13: Monarch Place Women's Shelter

Day 14: Dating Abuse

Day 15: Community Knitter's Circle

Day 16: Gov't Spending: WorldVision "Gift" Catalogue

Day 17: Sarah Maclachlan: World on Fire Video

Day 18: Homelessness: Woodwynn Farms

Day 19: Me to We

Day 20: International Aid: Poverty.com

Day 21: TOMS shoes

Day 22: 30 Hour Famine

Day 23: Commitment (Tortise & Hare)

Day 24: AIDS in Africa: Stephen Lewis Foundation

Day 25: AIDS in Africa: Sex Ed & Funding

Day 26: AIDS in Africa: Mama Orphan

Day 27: Africa: Education Aid

Day 28: Microfinance: Oikocredit

Day 29: "Third World" definition

Day 30: Oxfam Hunger Banquet

Day 31: Habitat for Humanity: ReStore

Day 32: Fair Trade: Ethical Consumerism

Day 33: Fair Trade: Ten Thousand Villages

Day 34: Fair Trade: Peppa Bunny

Day 35: Third World Eyeglass Society

Day 36: Doctors Without Borders (MSF)

Day 37: Social Media: Twestival

Day 38: Food Calculator: WeFeedBack

Day 39: Earth Day