Seasons – they come and go. Life, death, resurrection, repeat.
Two blog cycles ago, I was sitting on my patio on a beautiful spring morning having just finished some planting and gardening. I wrote about the importance of pruning for new life. Despite those first few weeks of quarantine, I was hopeful and energized by being outdoors, gardening, long walks in the middle of the day. I was even able to take my computer and work outdoors, how great was that?! Life.
But now, it’s August in Texas – that season I refer to as “crunchy.” All those plants I planted are being neglected because it’s still 90+ degrees after the sun goes down (good thing I have learned to plant draught tolerant, native plants!). Every time I pull out of the driveway I tell myself I will get out there and prune the rosebush so I can see more amazing blooms, but by the time I get back, I’m hot and tired and don’t want to go outside and work.
This is my reality – much like posting a photo with no make-up on social media. This is the real me. I’m hot. I’m tired. I miss my people. I miss going out to eat and wandering. My house is a disaster. I’m tired of Zoom meetings (no offense to those I meet with – I like being with you!). I’m so tired of loading and unloading the dishwasher, and if I hear “Mo-om” one more time. . .
My soul is weary. My prayers are often just silence, counting on that Spirit to intercede for me. Life feels crunchy and all I want to do is sit in my comfy chair, read another book, and avoid it all. Death.
Then, last week we picked up our son’s school supplies. It was different this year with curbside pickup, but there is still something about new school supplies. And today we went and bought new school shoes (despite the fact that my son will be online for at least the first six weeks). Then we went by the school and picked up our iPad. Furthermore, we started to deep clean the house, and we will soon be getting our son’s learning space organized and ready to go – still a ways to go, but it will all be good by the first day of school next week.
Yes, I’m worried about balancing working from home and online school. Yes, I continue to be disheartened at the numbers of COVID-19 infections and tired of being in my house. Yes, the news continues to raise my blood pressure daily. However, there is something about school supplies and new shoes that provide a hope-filled reset. Resurrection.
Wendell Berry concludes his poem, Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front, (link to entire poem here: https://cals.arizona.edu/~steidl/Liberation.html, with these words: Practice Resurrection. This phrase has stuck with me since the first time I read it. I love this idea of resurrection as a spiritual practice, not just something that happened once to Jesus.
As resurrection people, we are hope-filled, but it doesn’t mean that we are exempt from the cycle of life: life, death, resurrection, repeat. Each has its place and it’s important to know where you may be in that cycle, and, especially if you are in a death (crunch!) time of life, remember resurrection WILL come again.
