Ash Wednesday...I should be sleeping

We went to Ash Wednesday services today. This is my first time that I can recall ever attending services on Ash Wednesday. You're supposed to think about what you can give up during Lent (The 40 days between now and Easter) and/or what you can bring into your life to draw you closer to God. We washed our hands in bowls around the church and then everyone went up to the front to have ashes placed on their foreheads or hands. It's to symbolize that we started from ashes and to ashes we will return. I might be missing some things, but that's the basics of what I took from it. Regarding what I'm giving up and adding to my life, I've decided to do the following:

1. No gossiping (which I shouldn't do anyway...even if I'm just on the receiving end of it)
2. Read my bible daily
3. Volunteer at Heartbeats (if they'll have me) http://www.heartbeats-olc.org/

It ended up being a very emotional and teary evening for me which means I'm typing this through puffy eyes. I should be sleeping but the appeal of the blogging world has drawn me in yet again. I received my first comments to my blog (Thanks Samantha!). To be honest, it's kind of scary when you know someone outside of your family circle is actually reading your blog. You feel like your emotions, mundane thoughts and ridiculous attempts at humor are somehow under a microscope. The lovely thing about it is that there are no rules to this thing and it's perfectly okay to be yourself...which is exactly what I intend to do. I'm taking my puffy eyes to bed now and hoping the swelling is gone by the morning which is just hours away.