I’m not religious at all.

In fact, as absurd as it was that I was baptized at birth (French Catholic hospital, I was three weeks premature, and might have not made it, so G-d forbid I die with sin on my head), I never really knew much about Christianity until I studied art history in university.

But symbolism hits me hard. And to me, Lent is a particularly potent symbol of retreat and reflection.

I’ve taken the last four Lenten periods away from social media and the news. This began because I’ve been a news junkie for as long as I can recall, thinking it wise to be aware of goings-on in the world, in order to be better informed. Or so went my reasoning.

In a world where we are not only bombarded by information—most of it unparsed and useless—we are also bombarded by the same item over and over again. It would challenge someone not predisposed to overwhelm not to be overwhelmed by it. 

At some point, I realized that I had to take a break, and somehow Lent seemed like a good time and a good length.

Here’s something I’ve discovered through experience: whenever you take something away from your life, other things rush in. I have a vivid memory of travelling solo in New Zealand, having not brought a means of playing music. Music being a form of company to me, literally filling spaces left empty in my brain, turning them into imaginative palaces of activity. Take that away, and what’s left?

Music. After about a month or so away from actively listening to music, I began to hear it vividly in my head, much more clearly than I ever had before in life. The need to hear music created music in the places where it would have existed. Longing made it real.

This is precisely what happens during my Lenten fast. Things rush in, vividly, urgently, as if they suddenly realized there’s space for them! Ideas, images, visions, all clamouring for my attention. 

I rediscover parts of myself that I’d forgotten. Things I enjoy doing. Books I’ve meant to read. Projects I started and then abandoned. I come back to myself. I slow down, internally. I become more deliberate, less reactive.