Shrove Tuesdays and Fasting
Being a good tosser initiates thought.
I have just sat down to write my weekly journal and article after having gorged myself on 5 freshly homemade pancakes (Crepes) that have been splashed with lemon juice and sprinkled with just half a teaspoon of caster sugar! Yes, today in England it is Shrove Tuesday! Otherwise known as Pancake day!
Although I am in Bahrain, I used FaceTime to talk to my parents and show off my tossing skills live! For what is a pancake if it has not been flipped through the air and landed perfectly flat back into the pan? The call was a happy time. These trivialities become important to us that are far away from home.
That there is a Shrove Tuesday at all in my memory and experience of life is down to my Mother. As a child I remember this one afternoon and early evening, in those dark and cold days of February, where Mum made pancakes. It was not a spiritually religious occasion. My upbringing was singularly non religious. It was a secular event that as I grew older I realised, came from our broad cultural and religious past.
So it has remained for me. Now I'm a Pagan Druid, who every Shrove Tuesday….makes pancakes! Simply because it has that delicious longevity in my experience of this life. I still see no reason to stop. Sure I can make pancakes on any day of the year…..and I do on occasion….but on this day no matter where I am in the world, I still seek to do this.
So for most Christians tomorrow will be the start of Lent. My partner Jean, who is a practising Roman Catholic, will be going to Ash Wednesday Mass and starting her Lenten period of 40 days of remembering Jesus own 40 days of fasting and temptation by Satan, in the run up to Easter. Although she does not fast so far as I know ( But see Matthew Chapter 6 vs 6 onwards) she does stop eating certain foods etc in Lent and of course focusses upon her Christian faith and Christs own fasting and sacrifice.
Here in Bahrain in March it will also be the start of the Islamic Ramadan. One whole Lunar cycle of fasting through the daytime hours in honour of the giving of the Quran to the Prophet Mohammed.
Other groups practice fasting as part of their religious disciplines. The idea of going without food so that the time can be spent better focussing upon your groups goal/aim/deity seems to be a common aim and experience across the world and cultures and religions as you'd reasonably expect.
Then there are the social reasons to fast. If for example your a movie star. Like Julia Roberts character Anna in the movie Notting Hill recounting to her British friends after dinner how hard it is being a movie star, all for the last brownie. Her story though probably realistic, does not persuade her cynical Brit friends!
Then there are medical reasons to fast if perhaps there is a procedure coming up or if obesity, a firm indicator of downstream ill health, needs to be addressed. People also may fast as part of controlling and learning to control their calorie intake and educate themselves on healthy attitudes to food.
So in 2020 after a revelatory and insightful episode of chest and heart pain commensurate with heart attack; I had to evaluate my lifestyle. My weight had ballooned to over 14 Stone, (Sorry, I still do measures in the Old Imperial!) my diet was appalling and full of sugar et alia. I had to take a active, thoughtful approach. Also a long term one.
Fasting became for me, one of my new lifestyle choices. I gradually began an intermittent fasting regime in my life. After two years it is still not easy….but the default way I am living life.
I fast for 16 hours. Then have an 8 hour eating window before the next fast. So although this process began as a necessary way to lose weight coupled with far more daily exercise it has had many good knock on effects.
The more I educate myself on using that eating window to choose fresh, healthier options and drink water and lose sugar out of my diet as much as possible the better I am feeling about myself. Yes, Im glad to report I have also lost 2 Stone in weight and am within reach of my goal. My love of a good ale, perhaps being my achilles heel in that regard!
Yet also I have been casting my spells, holding conversation with Mother Earth and the Universe more regularly. Or as Jean might say, I have been praying! Religion and ritual have been more focussed. Not my original goal, but a welcome addition!
Now very early on I did a trawl on the internet to see if there were groups or apps or something to help me in my daily goals. After a little trial and error, I found a good app for my iPhone that records my intermittent fasting routine, records my diet and offers insights on how to improve those choices made when I am in the eating window. It is called “Simple" on the Apple App Store. It has been a great help to me over the past two, going into third year of this. I am not advertising for any benefit. Im glad to share what has been working for me!
I heard Michael Schellenberger remark recently (on the Triggernometry podcast) that one of the things he thinks people in the Western World should rediscover for themselves is this, “ An immortality project”. In other words investing time, energy into spiritual pursuits that gives community, ritual, a point and purpose to life beyond sensory introspection and gratification. Secularism and atheism for him, have failed to produce satisfactory results as they seemed to promise. Fasting, as I think about it, is a part of that project for me now.
Fasting is now all of those things I mentioned earlier bound together. Physical, emotional, didactic, and spiritual. Funny how tossing a pancake can lead my mind down avenues of thought!
Blessings to one and all.