Lent is not something as much as it is the absence of something.
The thing about going without is that it moves our attention from the thing to the lack of the thing.
As if we turn our attention to the voids in our lives, by creating a void. In going without, I am aware of something missing in my life. The lack of something material that creates, for a season, a noticeable shadow.
And in being aware of that shadow, I am drawn to all the other shadows in my life.
Like the void in my conscience that Christ’s voice should be filling.
Or the void in my timetable that meditation should be filling.
I think lent is about creating pot-holes for the sake of the whole road. As I fast, I am more tuned to the feelings of ‘want’ and ‘need’. Feelings that serve to push me back towards the mysterious divine, the father, and all those voids that the material world cannot satisfy.