Chrysalis Time

I have always loved the seasons of the church year, and have found them to be a way to provide just enough structure and focus to my spiritual life to prevent aimless drifting (a constant danger).  I usually anticipate and prepare for Advent and Lent with great enthusiasm...

...with this past Advent being a great exception to the rule.

Due to a combination of factors (some of which were not beyond my control) I arrived at last November exhausted and very crispy around the edges (cute words for burned out).  The thought of preparing for Advent felt like "one more thing" - and I didn't want anything that  looked or sounded like "one more thing."  I didn't engage in the work that prepares my home, mind and heart to enter into a season of waiting, anticipation, and opening to God.  Simple rituals that I've lovingly kept since I was a teenager seemed like too much bother...and were not done.  Before I knew it, a virtually meaningless Advent led into an equally joyless Christmas - and then it was gone. 

I hope to never make that mistake again.  And so I have been gently and quietly preparing for Lent.  I've selected my devotional readings, made a few changes to my prayer space in anticipation of a new season, and made some choices of what I will and won't do during the forty day journey.  The most important choice I've made is to be present and aware for each of Lent's forty days, and to be open to going deeper into God's transformative presence.

How will you keep this Lent?   Will Easter morning be a time to celebrate the new life that has been growing throughout the Lenten Journey?  Will you emerge as a butterfly from the chrysalis - or will it be just another day? 

God brings the grace and transformation - but whether or not we show up for the experience is totally our choice.  May we choose life!

With love (and plans to show up)
Kim