Today is the first day of Lent in the Catholic Church.  We begin our journey of repentance in preparation for the Easter season.

As a convert to Catholicism, I found it a bit odd to “give something up” during the 40 days prior to Easter.  I’d known friends that gave up chocolate, soda, beer, etc and  I wondered what sort of spiritual conditioning could be achieved by doing such things.  However, over the 20+ years since my entrance into the Church, I’ve seen how such small sacrifices can have an impact on spiritual growth – especially if the thing given up is something akin to an addiction.

One year, during medical school, I gave up coffee – a source of caffeine that helped me stay awake during the many long hours of lectures and studying.  Whenever I craved for the coffee, I would remind myself why I couldn’t have it and “offer it up” – a phrase uttered by older generations, referring to offering the situation as a sacrifice to God.

As a former Protestant, I have always been more drawn to the concept of adding something to my daily routine that would enhance my spiritual growth.  In past years, I have said a daily rosary, read the daily mass readings (as seen here) along with commentaries on the daily readings (e.g., Word Among Us), read spiritual devotionals (e.g., In Conversation with God, by Francis Fernandez), and listened only to Christian music.  The payoff for this sort of activity is that it has often become part of my daily routine, even after Lent ended.  If you’d like to join me in my 2012 Lenten journey, I will be reading “The Power of the Cross: Applying the Passion of Christ to Your Life” by Michael Dubruiel.  This is written in such a format that is read daily; you can download the free pdf here.

Whatever you choose to give up or add this year – I wish you great success in your Lenten journey.

Linda showed me a hilarious tongue-in-cheek video of a newscast from the fake news site, The Onion, about a set of parents seeking to have the courts declare their 13-year old daughter brain-dead because all she is able to do is roll her eyes and grunt while texting on her phone.  Too funny not to share.

http://youtu.be/yuH3_0jOBZI

Working in the ER can be very depressing at times.  ER doctors and nurses often see people at their worse.  It’s usually not the fault of the patient – it’s just the nature of being ill or injured and not being in the best frame of mind.  Additionally, there are the very tragic cases that most only read about in the newspaper or see on the news – we actually see it up close and very personal.

It’s no wonder that ER staff develop a very dark sense of humor.  Again, it’s not really their fault, but becomes a coping mechanism.

So, enjoy a little medical humor courtesy Ameriquest and YouTube.

Anyone that follows my Facebook or Twitter accounts will tell you that I regularly take pictures of my libations and cigars.  In fact, the nurses I work with find it quite odd that my pictures are a combination of beer, wine, cigars, and biking.  My answer to the oddity – all in moderation.

I enjoy taking pictures of the different beer, wine, and cigars because it gives me a record of what I’ve tried.  I also enjoy some of the artistry and beauty in some of the pictures.  Instagram has helped me take it to the next level with the ability to process the pictures in such an artistic manner.  But in the end, I just like the way it looks and it gives me something to remember what was consumed.

Those that know me can tell you I don’t do anything half way; I dive in headfirst and enjoy each of my hobbies to the fullest.  Linda playfully teases me about all of my addictions, but it’s all in moderation – always in moderation.

This past weekend, the four of us were among the millions that attended the opening weekend of the new movie, “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close”.

The trailer above will give you an idea what the movie is about, but it only gives a peak into the whole story.  The movie, based on a 2005 novel, follows the journey of Oskar Schell after his father dies in the collapse of the World Trade Center.  My initial thoughts about having the 9/11 tragedy as a movie plot was “it’s too soon”, but I am quickly reminded that it’s been over 10 years.  In addition, the movie isn’t so much preoccupied with the events of 9/11 as it is with Oskar struggling to keep the memory of his father alive.  Finding a key that belonged to his father gives him a mission to search out more information about his father.  Along the journey, we are introduced to numerous colorful characters (my favorite being The Renter).  I couldn’t begin to count how many times I alternated between smiling and tearing throughout the 2 hour movie.

The acting of Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock, Max von Sydow and others are amazing.  However, the performance by the young Thomas Horn was fabulous.  I anticipate seeing more from this new actor.

This was the first time that we’ve taken the girls with us dramatic movie.  There were moments I was concerned that it might have been too much drama for them.  However, I was proven wrong because they were riveted throughout and loved the story and the movie.  We had long discussions afterwards about our experiences the day of 9/11 and what it would be like to lose a parent.

If you haven’t seen the movie, please go.  If you have seen it, let me know what you thought about it.

Well, it’s Sunday night and I’d been thinking over the last week about the fact that I’ve neglected posting to the blog –  once again!  There are so many things I want to write about – family events, work stories, musings that are bouncing around in my head. However, I’m never really sure what to write about.

Most of what we do as a family is the same stuff that every other family does; it seems to me that it’d be quite boring to read about these mundane things.  However, maybe I should write about it just to document the happenings of our family.  Documenting these things may be something worth reading years from now.  But now?

I often wish I could write about things that happen at work.  As an emergency physician, I meet a lot of really neat people with a lot of interesting stories.  I have really cool patients; and I have patients that aren’t so cool.  Unfortunately for you (and fortunately for me), I’ve decided not to write about work; it protects my patients, my employer, and ultimately me!

Like most of you, I’m regularly thinking about a lot of things (religion, politics, family, work, friends, hobbies).  However, I usually figure you wouldn’t want to read about whatever I’m thinking.  Maybe you do, but I usually talk myself out of putting down in writing.  So, I’m often at a standstill when it comes to creating a blog post.

I like to take pictures and I share them.  In fact, I often posted blog entries around a photo.  However, I recently upgraded the WordPress software which was supposed to make for easier photo uploads.  Unfortunately, I can’t get it to work at all since the upgrade.  I’ve had to load photos to Flickr and then link to those photos.  Despite being a little more work, it works.  Nonetheless, if I ever delete a photo from Flickr, the photo will disappear from the blog post.  It’d be better if I could just load the photo directly into the post (as I used to do).  Persistent research as to why it won’t work for me has not resulted in any solutions.  .  But, the blog hasn’t been a very friendly way for me to do it lately.

Speaking of pictures, let me tell you that I’ve recently fallen in love with Instagram and am posting many of my pictures via that app.  If you’re an Instagram user, you can find me as “erdoc”.  Instagram is a photo sharing social network, kind of like Facebook or Twitter but with photos.  Most importantly, I love how the photos are published in a square format and the photo-editing options are very cool, resulting in a very awesome final product.  You can see examples of my Instagram photos here at my Flickr page.

Anyways, I just wanted to check in and let you know that I’ve not forgotten about the blog.  I think about it daily.  Now – just to think a little harder about what to post.