Abstinence Is Easier Than Moderation

by Webb Hubbell

Total abstinence is easier than perfect moderation — St. Augustine

I love this quote because it is so vey true.
The Lenten season brings this wisdom home for me every year. One oatmeal raisin cookie will send me off on a bender, where if I can totally abstain I might just make it forty days. (Notice I say might.)
But I don’t think Augustine had cookies in mind when he came forth with this wisdom.
More than likely he was talking about desires in the more commonly understood sense.
A classic Buddhist saying reminds us that in the same way that rain comes into a house with a bad roof, desire breaks into our heart and mind when we have not been practicing meditation.
Lent is time to repair the leaks in our heart and mind through a steady diet of fasting, prayer, meditation, and service.
It is a time where we develop the skills to live a life of perfect moderation.

About the author

Webb Hubbell is the former Associate Attorney General of The United States. His novels, When Men Betray, Ginger Snaps, A Game of Inches, The Eighteenth Green, and The East End are published by Beaufort Books and are available online or at your local bookstore. When Men Betray won one of the IndieFab awards for best novel in 2014. Ginger Snaps and The Eighteenth Green won the IPPY Awards Gold Medal for best suspense/thriller. His latest, “Light of Day” will be on the bookstands soon.

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