"I know I can't trust her."

I am not an ultra-religious person, spiritual yes, uber-religious no.  While I don't consider myself religious, I enjoy participating in Lent.  I think spring is the perfect time for me to evaluate my spirituality. Am I honoring my spirit and beliefs? Am I treating people how I want to be treated? Am I being fair? Am I being kind to myself, etc.? 

Instead of giving up something tangible for Lent, I decided to reach out to people that I felt had treated me unfairly or people who I knew were being malicious towards me.  I decided to practice being more forgiving instead of saying I would try.  I also decided to be way nicer to myself, to cut myself some much needed slack.

While my intentions were good and just, I am not Jesus, Muhammad nor The Pope.  However, I did give everything an honest and for real try. I had lunches and dinners and phone calls with people that I knew I didn't care for and who I knew didn't care for me.  Some of those conversations went very well and the beef, whether real or imagined, was squashed and forgotten.  Others not so much.

You ever have a conversation with someone and your spirit just won't settle about it. I mean you just know in your gut that the entire exchange is pure BS from the other person?  That's how a couple of my conversations went.  One conversation stood out the most because I actually liked the person before whatever happened with us happened. Truthfully, I am still not sure what that 'thing' was that happened.  I asked and got a two-step full of BS. *shrug*  I know I can't trust her; that was made loud and clear.  I am fully aware of where I stand with this person and how our interactions should be handled going forward. I'm good on that and will never again put forth the effort to make things better.  We are not meant to be friends with or like everybody we interact with and that is OK. Seriously!

This Lenten season has also been a lesson in trusting my instincts again.  My first reaction or feeling towards a person or situation is 99.99% of the time the right one; the one I should pay attention to.  Whether it's meeting someone for the first time or dealing with a medical situation, my first mind is my right mind as the old folks say!

To celebrate the end of another enlightening Lenten season I prepared a simple, yet non-traditional Easter Sunday meal:  Blackened Fresh Snapper, Bacon Wrapped Fresh Shrimp, Grilled Squash and Parmesan Orzo (I was out of risotto!)  For dessert we had Fresh Lemon Cheesecake Tarts, post coming soon.  The rub for the snapper can be found here on my Chili-Rubbed Fish Tacos post!