When I first returned from my wanderings through Morocco and Istanbul, I pledged a new Alissa: one that would take long walks, cook real food and shop at the farmer's market, one that would try to avoid looking at Rodney Yee's awkwardly tight spandex shorts while doing yoga in my living room. In short, I promised Oprah. An embodiment of St. Paul's "all things in moderation." Gandhi and Jesus wrapped up into one. A walking zen garden.
A friend wrote me one week after I posted my rosy resolutions for the new year: "Uh, Alissa, that's great that you want to start drinking herbal tea and self-actualize on your morning walk to work...but has it occured to you that you have never actually maintained a low-key lifestyle in your entire life?"
True, I was aiming a little high. But I am proud to say that, aided by regular lapses with McDonald's $1 hot fudge sundaes, I have managed to hold onto my intentions well enough. I'm even drinking herbal ginger tea as we speak. I've been walking to work every day, listening to Radio Lab podcasts and contemplating the Nile. While I've had a few disasters in the kitchen, I am becoming an expert in cooking tomatoes and eggplants. (Ok...the eggplants are still giving me trouble. Let's just keep it at, "an expert in cooking tomatoes.") I won't be reaching nirvana anytime soon, but my success in slowing down and treating my body a bit better bodes well for a reduced heart attack risk if I do end up going to grad school next year. So long as I can lapse out of my healthy lifestyle once a day to buy a McDonald's $1 hot fudge sundae, that is...
But the true test hasn't even begun. Next Wednesday marks the beginning of Ash Wednesday for the western church. In my last post, I panicked that God was going to take sugar away from me--goodbye to copious cups of sweet tea, daily stops to the ice cream store, kilos of baklava, and coconut juice in the spring. Sigh.
Luckily, as a cross stitched pillow in my mother's room always reminded me: when God closes a door, he somehow opens a window.
Ok, so maybe it was me who slammed shut the door on the possibility of giving up sugar for lent (Please God, have mercy on me!)--but he did provide me with a convenient out.
Coming home from work one night this week, I was mulling once again over the problem of lent, and how I could possibly kill my sweet tooth for a whole 40 days. Right as I came in the door, my roommate called out, "So, what do you think about vegan fasting for Lent?"
Yes! Here was the sign I was looking for! Now, going vegan and giving up all meat, all dairy, and all egg products may hardly seem like a "convenient" out. But so long as I can keep drinking sweet tea and eating bakalava? Oh, I can work with this.
Vegan fasting isn't an arbitrary decision, either. The orthodox Christians in Egypt (called Copts) observe a whopping 210 vegan fasting days every year. Two hundred ten! Those kids aren't messing around! It's an old, time honored tradition with its roots in the very earliest Christian communities. So my entire apartment will be joining in not only an ancient practice, but a local practice. I'm looking forward to connecting with Egypt in a deeper way like this--it's so rare that we feel like we can genuinely and fully participate in so many different parts of the culture and society here.
So, starting February 25th? Goodbye to McDonald's ice cream sundaes, but hopefully I will be welcoming in an interesting and challenging new phase to my stay here in the Middle East.
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