IMG_0535Remembering. This is a big part of Lent for me, taking time to remember those who have shaped me, helped me grow, pushed me to grow through their encouragement or their challenge. One way I am remembering this year is through a daily routine. Rather than eliminating something from my life, I have added something. A quiet time that includes lighting a bottle with lamp oil as I sit quietly.

The bottle was originally filled with Triple Barrel Big Bad Baptist, “an imperial stout aged in whiskey and rum barrels with cacao nibs, barrel-aged coffee beans, and barrel-aged coconut added.” That’s what the label says.

I first heard of this brew from a text from Ray Boehmer. He wrote that we needed to share one of these the next time I visited in Illinois. Sharing an unusual beer with Ray was one of our usual activities, and with both of us being recovering Baptists, he thought this would be appropriate.

That was 2 years ago. That was my last text from Ray. He died of an aortic aneurism a few days later. When Judy and I were in Illinois for his memorial service, appropriately held at Riggs Brewery, I bought a bottle of Big Bad Baptist and kept if a few weeks until I had a quiet time to fully appreciate the experience and the person.

These mornings of Lent, I light the wick, sit quietly in my rocker, and wait expectantly for something to come to mind. I wait for Ray, my favorite atheist/recovery Baptist/spiritual mentor, and any others from my past to visit and give me a word to write.

This morning I decided to write about Ray, inspired by the flame that flickers from the Big Bad Baptist bottle.