Today is Ash Wednesday. It marks the first day of Lent and occurrs forty six days before Easter. For a lot of Catholics, the lenten season is a time when they give up something that they really enjoy or like. It doesn’t have to be about food but it must be something that they like and they commit to the sacrifice of depriving themselves of whatever it is that they chose to give up. I guess it’s a sign of penance for any wrong doings or sins they might have done. It’s also a way of showing that they are not slaves to material things.
Giving up things for lent has not been the thing in our family. Even in Catholic School, I don’t remember such practice being taught to us (or maybe I was just not paying attention). Aside from the ‘no meat’ rule on Ash Wednesday and Fridays during Lent, we were not told to think of anything else to give up. We were taught to go through the actual confession with a priest as a way of repenting for our sins. But anyway, thinking about it now, if I were to think of something to give up, what would it be? Hmmn.. I probably would give up spinach! 
I happen to like spinach very very much. Really!!