A Lent Observed

The liturgical season of Lent is 40 days long.  It lasts from Ash Wednesday through Easter morning.  It comes out to be roughly six weeks long.

We moved to Germany during Lent last year, and as far as any official Lenten discipline went, I did very little.  Living at the hotel in Greenville and later at the Karl Theodore Hotel here in München was enough of a desert/fasting experience in itself.

Yesterday, I found out that we'd be back at the Karl Theodore once we move out of our apartment.  Thankfully it's only for about 10 days.  Then we'll be living in a residential hotel in Greenville after we fly home.  Our sea freight will arrive roughly four and a half weeks later.

So, although we'll be well into Pentecost (the so-called 'Ordinary Time' of the liturgical year), we will yet again embark on a six week long pseudo-Lenten observance.  Nothing about those six weeks will be ordinary for us.  It will be a time of discipline, of not having access to the material 'stuff' of which we fill our lives, of intensive family closeness.  After somersaulting through the many stages of our transition, we will bust out of the tomb-like space of our hotel room, and I will no doubt joyfully exclaim 'Alleluia!' on the pseudo-Easter morning of our homecoming.

And yes, in true American-Easter fashion, there will be all kinds of little (and not so little) surprises for the kids to seek out and find.  But first, the journey...