There are traditions in many world religions that have to do with food and eating. For centuries, adherents to many different faiths have known of a relationship between fasting and seeking visions. Going for periods without eating is a discipline that has been shared by faithful people around the globe.

The traditional calendar of Christianity has days for fasting and days for feasting. Today is a day of feasting that precedes a season of fasting. Fat Tuesday, also known as Mardi Gras, Shrove Tuesday, and the final day of Carnival is the last night of consuming rich, fatty foods in preparation for the season of Lent. Lent begins tomorrow with Ash Wednesday. Through the complexities of the Christian calendar which involves both elements of solar and lunar calendars, Ash Wednesday lands on Valentine’s Day this year. Saints days are often observed as times of feasting, and popular culture has connected Valentine’s Day with gifts of chocolate candy and other foods often given up for Lent.

Our particular corner of the Christian church has generally not made a big deal of either feast or fasting days. When I was growing up, we were aware that our Roman Catholic neighbors didn’t eat meat on Fridays, but were unsure of the reasons behind that particular tradition. In our household, we at meat on Fridays. We did tend to have generous meals on Sundays partly in observance of a day that was less scheduled than the other days of the week, but we didn’t speak in terms of fasting or feasting except in reference to special meals for holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day.

As one who has struggled with a tendency towards some unhealthy eating habits and who has often carried a few extra pounds, I have used the heightened spiritual awareness of the season of Lent as an opportunity to make more healthy choices about food. Sometimes I have gone without eating on days such as Ash Wednesday and Good Friday as a personal discipline, but I have not been public with such actions and have not encouraged others to imitate that practice. For many years of our professional careers, the congregations we served had traditions that pulled together elements of Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday into a single event. Members of the congregation would gather for a pancake supper before the Ash Wednesday worship service.

Ash Wednesday is a traditional time of reflection on human mortality. We are reminded that all of us will one day die and that grief will enter every life of those who love. I have observed the season of Lent and especially the final Holy Week preceding Easter as an opportunity to practice the process of grief. Given that we all will have seasons of grief in our lives and will experience the disruption of loss, it makes sense to me to set aside times to recognize and practice for those seasons of our lives.

While many health experts tout the benefits of intermittent fasting, I have not found that periodically going for short periods without eating has had much of an effect on how much I weigh or my overall health. Like many people my age, I have discovered that gradual changes in habits and lifestyle are far more effective than diets and other short-term changes in behavior. Last year, however, I was successful in shedding several pounds during the season of Lent. Following a health scare that required the intervention of a skilled cardiologist, I decided that the time had come for me to pay attention to my weight and overall health. I am approaching the one year anniversary of what I hope is a permanent change in my lifestyle.

I have shed a few pounds and I hope that I will be able to keep them off. However, my weight loss program has plateaued and for several weeks I have been frustrated with my inability to lose a few more pounds to reach my overall goal. I’m sure that part of the process is that my discipline regarding snacking seems to come and go. I will be good for a while and then allow myself to eat between meals more from time to time. Although I have an active lifestyle, I’m not one for working out in a gym and I’m sure that variations in physical activity are also factors in my ability to lose weight.

While I acknowledge the relationship between my faith and my health, I have never felt that the goal of my spiritual life is to somehow be more healthy or to live longer than other people. I do want to maintain my overall health so that I have energy for relationships with others and the capacity to serve others.

For this year at least, I have no special plans to have any special foods or feasting today. Nor do I have plans for fasting during Lent. I do plan to be careful about having too many snack foods around the house, but I hope that discipline will be an overall lifestyle choice and not just a single season.

The season of Lent comes in the spring for those of us who live in the northern hemisphere. The lengthening of days is even more obvious in our home here on the 49th parallel than it was in other places where we live. Today will have more than three minutes more sunlight than yesterday and the rate of change will continue to grow each day until nearly Easter, when the rate of change starts to slow a bit, but still will be more than three and a half minutes each day.

Longer days brings thoughts of spring planting and invites more outdoor activity. There are always plenty of outdoor projects on the farm but I have the luxury of being able to stay indoors on rainy days or other times when the weather is chilly. In general, I find more opportunities for outdoor work in summer than winter, making it easier to balance exercise and eating.

The change between today and tomorrow with the start of Lent won’t be very dramatic in our household, at least in terms of meal planning and grocery shopping. I could, however, stand to lose a few more pounds and perhaps paying a bit of attention to my eating patterns would be a healthy discipline for the change of seasons.