Lent 2026 · Day 30: The Old Can Become New Again

Back during COVID, I did what a lot of us did... spent a lot of time navel-gazing and cooking.

One of the things I wanted to get back to was cooking the food I grew up eating. Growing up, we sat at the table every night and had dinner together. I don’t remember what we talked about, but I remember the feeling. The routine. The intentional time together as a family.

It meant something.

And it’s one of the things I miss most from my childhood.

So I started cooking traditional Filipino dishes. And one in particular always brings me back to that place of comfort.

Lugaw.

It’s a simple Filipino rice porridge my mom made all the time when I was a kid. It’s not complicated, but it holds a lot. It can be either sweet or savory. It all depends on what you put into it.

My mom would make it when we were sick. It’s like the Filipino version of chicken noodle soup… but way better.

I’ve made it a few times now, and it never tastes the way my mom made it.

And I think that’s the point.

Food has this way of bringing you back in time. Not perfectly. Not exactly how it was. But close enough that you can feel it for a moment.

The warmth.

The memory.

The version of you that existed back then.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the past lately. Probably because of law school, probably because of life, probably because when things get busy, your brain likes to wander back to places that feel familiar.

And if you watch enough shows or movies, you start to notice the same themes over and over again, regret, resentment, revenge.

Holding onto what happened. Replaying it. Trying to make sense of it.

There’s a quote that stuck with me, “Resentment is a mental resistance to something which has already happened… an emotional rehashing, or re-fighting of some event in the past. You cannot win, because you are attempting to do the impossible, change the past.” — Maxwell Maltz

Because if I’m honest, I’ve done that. Replayed conversations. Revisited moments. Tried to rewrite outcomes in my head.

But the truth is… we can’t change what’s already happened.

We can only decide what we carry forward.

Which brings me, somehow, back to golf. Because everything in my life eventually loops back to golf.

There’s a quote by Bobby Jones: “One reason golf is such an exasperating game is that a thing we learned is so easily forgotten, and we find ourselves struggling year after year with faults we had discovered and corrected time and again.”

That’s not just golf.

That’s life.

We learn lessons. We grow. We think we’ve figured something out. And then somehow, we find ourselves right back in the same pattern, working through it all over again.

This year, I played in a winter golf league, so I didn’t feel like I was learning how to golf all over again once the season started. When I picked up my clubs and took them out into the wild, I wasn’t shanking the ball nearly as much as I would have if they’d been sitting in storage for four or five months.

And honestly… it felt good not to feel like I was starting over.

And I think that’s the point.

We don’t lose everything we’ve learned.

Even when it feels like we’re repeating ourselves, we’re not the same person we were the last time we were here.

I’m a creature of habit. I like structure. I like knowing what I have control over. And the truth is, we don’t have control over much.

But we do have control over how we spend our time.

Right now, most of my time is law school. Reading. Writing. Thinking. Trying to keep up.

But if the weather is decent and my body is willing, I’ll go play a round of golf. Only after I’ve done what I need to do.

Because that’s something I learned as a child finish your homework and chores, and then you get to go play.

And I still believe in that.

Also, if you need an emotional support beverage or cheese stick to get through your day, of tedious adulting, I fully support that too.

We do too much in our lives to deny ourselves the simplest joys.

Because sometimes, it really is the simple things.

A warm bowl of Lugaw.

A quiet round of golf.

A moment of stillness in a busy day.

The past doesn’t have to trap us.

It can still nourish us.

The old can become new again, not by recreating it exactly as it was, but by carrying forward what mattered.

Lenten Reflection: Letting Go, Holding On

“Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” — Isaiah 43:18–19 (NRSV)

Lent invites us to reflect, but not to stay stuck.

We’re not called to rewrite the past.

We’re called to learn from it. To carry what matters. And to release what no longer serves us.

This week, sit with this:

🔹 What am I holding onto that I can’t change?

🔹 What memories bring me comfort, and how can I carry them forward without clinging to them?

🔹 Where is something new trying to grow in my life?

The past shaped you.

But it doesn’t have to define you.

The old can become new again.

Take care of yourselves.

Take care of each other. 💛

*** This savory Filipino chicken rice porridge (Lugaw/Arroz Caldo) is made by sautéing ginger, garlic, and onion, then simmering bone-in chicken and rice in broth until thick and creamy. For best results, use a mix of glutinous and jasmine rice, seasoned with fish sauce (patis) and topped with fried garlic.

Ingredients:

✔️ 1 lb (or 2 lbs) bone-in chicken thighs or drumsticks

✔️ 1 cup white rice or a mix of white and glutinous rice (malagkit)

✔️ 6-8 cups chicken broth or water

✔️ 1 onion, chopped

✔️ 4–6 cloves garlic, minced

✔️ 1-2 thumbs ginger, julienned or sliced

✔️ 2 tbsp fish sauce (patis)

✔️1-2 tbsp cooking oil

Optional: 1 tsp turmeric or safflower (kasubha) for color

Garnish: Toasted garlic, spring onions, hard-boiled eggs, calamansi

Instructions:

🍲 Sauté Aromatics: In a large pot, heat oil and sauté garlic, onion, and ginger until fragrant and soft.👍

🍲 Cook Chicken: Add the chicken pieces. Cook until light brown. Add fish sauce (patis) and simmer for a minute.

🍲 Simmer Porridge: Add the rice (and turmeric/safflower if using) and stir to toast for 1-2 minutes. Pour in the chicken broth or water.

🍲 Boil and Simmer: Bring to a boil, then lower the heat to low.

🍲Cover and simmer for 30–40 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent the rice from sticking, until the rice is cooked and the porridge is thick.

🍲Finish and Serve: Adjust seasoning with fish sauce and pepper. Serve hot with garlic, onions, and calamansi.

Tips:

🍲 Visayan style: Often features more ginger and may use smaller pieces of chicken.

🍲 Consistency: If the lugaw is too thick, add more broth until you reach your desired consistency.

🍚 Best Rice: A mix of 1/2 glutinous and 1/2 jasmine rice gives the perfect texture, creamy yet distinct rice grains (Calrose is the best rice for this).

#lentreflection2026 #ancestors #lugaw #filipinofood