Lent is such a wonderful time for me....very bittersweet.....I use to hate Lent because it seemed like a downer....focusing on sin is not one of the top fun things I like to do...and yet that seemed to be what I was asked to do....focus on my sin that caused Jesus to die on the cross.It would bum me out so much that I just quit observing Lent altogether until last year....Father Pat talked about how the word Lent comes from the Latin word for Spring....new life....bloom...grow.....Now that I can handle.
Lent has definitely been a time of growth for me through the years.I had a relationship end during Lent.The very person who broke up with me then helped me work through it...quite a gift of growth. I lost both my parents during Lent.Though he's been gone for 39 years, my father continues to be a wonderful inspiration and teacher in the area of loving kindness.
Today I am thinking of some amazing memories of my family while dealing with the final plans of laying my mother to rest.First we needed to find the safety deposit box key.My sister,nephew and I tore the house up looking for it....only to find it in her underwear drawer.It was lying underneath a loaded gun and on top of $300.Isn't that where everyone puts their safety deposit box key? After she was buried,my sister and I went home to change into comfortable clothes.We grabbed lounge chairs,paper cups,and a bottle of wine.We went back to the cemetery to toast our parents and watch the afternoon sun...only to find the funeral director (and family friend)sitting on the tombstone waiting for us.We drank wine out of paper cups,sharing stories of the day...the funeral director told us how he played "Stairway to Heaven" while driving my mother's hearse from the church to the cemetery. I love these memories.They fill me with love and despite the fact that they surround mom's death,they also bring forth hope...in death there is life!....in Lent there is Spring and growth....joy
No comments:
Post a Comment