Hey, all. I am doing this in a backwards manner because today is Ash Wednesday which means the beginning of Lent, so before I bore y’all with photos of my adorable nephew that I got to meet and spend time with this past weekend, I am going to tell you about my plans for Lent.

A few years back, I started using Lent as a focus point in my life, helping me get back on track to something that I believe is important to me. It may not be “religious” for me any more, but it is certainly a spiritual act. Last year, I used Lent to focus my exercise, vowing to move my body for 40 days.

This year, in keeping with my wants for myself this year, I am going to make time to read. I have reconnected to reading this year through my New  Year’s Resolution to read 52 books in 2014, and I think spending just 30 minutes a day will help me reach that goal.

When I was in college, I read all the time; I read on trains, on planes, on the way to and from work and class. When I moved to LA, my commute became king, and I now tend to drive everywhere. Although I sometimes listen to books on tape CD, I usually am focused on traffic after work so I listen to NPR or music.

But I’ve been trying to listen to spoken word more, by listening to podcasts (mostly RadioLab) when I run, and I have been trying to get to bed in time to read a book, not Facebook or Twitter or the millions of blogs I read.

I’ve really enjoyed reconnecting to my love of books, and I hope these 40 days, a mere 20 hours of my life, can really remind me to pick up where I left off in that novel rather than that TV show or that feed.

Do you guys do anything for Lent? Share it with me and we can help each other out these 40 days!

Happy (Ash) Wednesday, y’all.