God has an awesome sense of humor, have you noticed? No sooner do I holler, "Three cheers for RELENTLESS OPTIMISM" then shtuff happens. This is how it goes with me and God. Just when I decide to be cheerful and positive, He's all: "Aw, that's sweet, Double E. Now, how're ya gonna handle THIS __________(fill-in-the-blanket-massive-life-change)?!"

MWAH-HA-HA, God! It's not gonna be that easy, yo! Hit me with your best shot! Bam-chicka-bam-bam!

(Me and God like to have these little verbal volleys. Usually? He wins).

So, yes. Our family is quite suddenly facing a large life change. And I'm trying to figure out how to filter that life change through the Relentless Optimism lens. I gotta tell ya: it's actually working. I mean, it's weird. I should be freaking out right now and instead I'm all positive and Chirpy-McDoodlehopper. What's a Chirpy-McDooodlehopper? I have no idea. I just made that up.

So, here's the deal. In honor of it being Lent, I've decided that NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS between now and Easter, by God's grace I *WILL* maintain a positive, joyful, cheerful attitude aaaaaaaaaand I am giving up:

• Worry
• Hand-wringing
• Worst-case-scenario imagining

Instead, every single time I feel those worries coming on, I'm going to pray. Call it Experiments in Praying Without Ceasing. Frankly, I'm sorta itching for this challenge with God. I wanna be so enthusiastic about this whole Optimistic Lent Thing that He can't HELP but work things out in my favor! And even if things go badly, well, I refuse to go down the path I've gone down 8 million times before; mainly, woe-is-me and the-end-is-near and yadda-yadda-yippy-yoo.

I've also decided to go all-out on the whole Lent thing. (I know, I know. I like to overdo it).

Just to show God how serious I am about this whole shootin' match, I've also given up:

• alcohol
• meat
• desserts
• and, um, my favorite hip-hop/rap music station.

Farewell, sweet chicken sandwich! Adieu, Snoop Dogg. Bon voyage, beloved little glasses of Pinot Noir.

Bring it on, 40 days of Lent! I won't be the same when this whole thing is over!

ONWARD!

p.s. if you remember, I'd appreciate your prayers for my family--that God would give us wisdom and discernment in the coming months. Thank you! (when it's time, I'll share more details--for now, please don't worry. it's nothing super disastrous like a health scare or broken relationship. it's more along the lines of: yeah, well, hey, THIS wasn't in our plans).

p.p.s. in AWESOME NEWS, my agent loves my book proposal and now I'm working on polishing up my sample chapters. See? Love + Sorrow, Joy + Pain, it's all bound up together. Ah, life.