Through The Wilderness: Wintering into Spring
Even though Lent derives its meaning from the Old English and German words for spring, we are not quite yet finished with the winter season. If you’re like me, you’re already ready for winter to be over and ready for the heat of a mid-July afternoon. However, winter has a gift for us.
Katherine May authored the book Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times, and she noted in an interview on public radio’s On Being recently that “when we’re in a winter, we almost need to look for spring or autumn, those kind of intermediate stages that are manageable for our dark imaginations at the time…I don’t think we want summer that often. I think summer can be a bit too much, in the way that winter can be a bit too much; those extreme highs. You can’t abide with them for too long. But what we can abide with is a sense of balance and self-regulation, I suppose I’d say. And I think that’s often what we’re seeking, on our way out of a winter: How can I come back into an equilibrium, rather than keep bouncing between extremes?”
As you and I walk through the wilderness this Lent, headed to the perky warmth of spring, how can we come more into the equilibrium, a grounded place? Join us for our Lenten conversations and activities to help find that steady middle ground God intends all of us.
— The Very Rev. Gray Lesesne, D.Min.
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