What I'm giving up for lent this year...

every year ash wednesday marks the first of forty days that catholic christians all over the world sacrifice something in preparation for easter. throughout my early adult life, i've always given up meat, ice cream, or rice (huge for a filipino, by the way.) anyhow, as i got older, i realized that giving up these things don't really teach me anything besides how much i really miss these things when they are lacking in my diet and the strength of my will power to resist these foods. sacrificing these things don't really capture the true nature of the season. so this year, i've decided to give up being negative. i find this a very challenging thing to give up. it is so easy to be negative especially during such an economic downturn. i'm not saying i'm going to ignore what is going on around me. i am just going to make a better effort to find the brighter side of things. and instead of dwelling on what sucks, i will dwell on what i can do to make it better. we'll see how far i get. wish me luck! are you giving anything up?