Happy Fat Tuesday!!

Step, step, step... Did you have a nice three day President's Weekend? Now are you looking back thinking, "Oh no - I fell off that health wagon for a couple of days to have fun with friends and now what?!"

For about 40 years, I've used the 40 Days of the solemn Lenten Season to focus on doing something good and cleansing for me. Okay - in the early years - Mom and Dad used to turn off the television for 40 days - (no, I'm not kidding and we did not have video games, computers, blackberrys - no mind-numbing distractions to get us through!!).

Every year from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday, my parents worked - by mandate - to motivate me and my seven brothers and sisters to do something that would give us a personal benefit. They would try to encourage us to read books, play games, spend more time interacting with family and friends, become pen pals to cousins in Ireland... "Use our imagination," mom would say. "Do anything you can think of..." because the TV stays off EXCEPT for that one glorious Sunday evening during Lent when we'd get to join the Bratton Family to watch "The Wizard of Oz" on our first new color TV! No video stores in our day kids, so yes - my parent's made this one awesome exception (Thank you, God...) that we were all extremely grateful for!! The first time Dorothy stepped out of her house in OZ after that tornado and the landscape across the screen was in color in our family room, we all literally hugged and screamed for joy!

Aside from vividly remembering our first color TV experience, this amazing requirement in our house represented learning - at a very young age - how to keep a 40 day commitment. In my eyes, we were a strong "Team-of-Ten" making the first group sacrifice of our lives while enjoying the benefit of each other. With this lesson in toe, my four brothers, three sisters and I were prepared to lead on Al Saner Track & Field, basketball courts, in classrooms, on stages, for non-profit causes and in our professional lives. Not one of us could ever say that our parents had not worked hard to try to prepare us for what was ahead as we embarked on our lives one difficult commitment at a time. When we become adults, parents are no longer in the position to shut off our televisions; only we can do that. To honor Mom and Dad - every Lenten Season - "I try" to do something meaningful tied to this important lesson.

In later years, for the 40 days I would commit to a certain exercise routine or eliminate sugar from my tea at the Brusgard house or swear off of a favorite food to help jump-start a health initiative that I'd hope would lead to a behavioral change that would become a long-term benefit managed by little old me.

Since "TishTrek - my 51/51 Challenge" is a journey to Health and Wellness... I'm going to celebrate Fat Tuesday and the start of Lent by taking another step that will enhance this journey! I'm going to up the ante in this challenge... and the drum roll please... I'll let you know what I'm going to commit to tomorrow.

Meaningful periods of reflection and action are woven into the ceremony and tradition of every culture and all religions in every hemisphere. Do something meaningful for yourself this Lenten Season. Sit quiet for a moment or an hour and figure out something you can do more of, or stop, or cut back on which will make a difference in how you feel about yourself and/or others. Do something for the next 40 days or the next 40 years. You won't regret it.

If I can do it, so can you.

Best regards,
Everybody's Cousin Tish
Score: 16/51

Quote of the Day: "If at first you don't succeed, believe in yourself and try again."
- But you knew that already!