We rather dread Lent each year, as instead of giving up chocolate or some other simple sacrifice, Lent seems to find us. No simple transformations here! It seems that we are always touched right where we are most prideful and invested. It is a time when our cars break down, our finances squeezed or some other rather serious cramp in our style occurs.
It doesn’t always occur at Lent, but sometimes, if we have just come through a difficult time, I do wonder “What more can find us during Lent?". I have learned to quit asking that question. There is always another layer of pride to be stripped away and I am always reminded how little control I really have over my life.
Control over anything is just an illusion, I think. Bank accounts are too easily depleted, health too often challenged, and basically there is little insulation from powers of nature or over the forces outside of ourselves.
I may sound bleak, but being humbled is not a bad thing. Just when you think you have hit bottom, there is always a blessing, and with it a new found appreciation for what you do have. And then more blessings come to mind: my wools, my threads, my love of sewing. Even my renewed nursing license is a sign of hope of future days and greater health. I look around my Little House and everywhere I turn there are bits of treasures, all symbolic of the love that surrounds me. Even in the desert there is beauty to be found, bits of loveliness everywhere, pushing the gloom away.
Lent will pass and then comes spring, every year, no matter what circumstances surround us. New life resurrects in us all. Solutions to present problems found and we are again filled. Overcoming obstacles then seems more like mere bumps in the road of life.
I spend these days preparing for what is ahead. Cleaning out, cutting out, and figuring out what is next. There is little time to be idle and when I find such a quiet moment, I pray that the clouds may lift and I can see a few days ahead. I am reminded of what my great grandmother used to say, “I have a plenty”!
