Lenten Reflections

"You are dust, and to dust you will return." This phrase lingered in my mind today as I shoveled mud and contemplated how to observe Lent in a meaningful way this year.  Thinking about myself as dust used to depress me, but now I take great comfort in remembering my origins and ultimate destination. It is a shared fate with all living things, the cycle of birth and death, decay and new birth. Just look at the compost bin.

 

In our neck of the woods this time of year, a more appropriate rendering of this phrase would be "you are mud, and to mud you will return."  The chickens delight in all the worms uncovered when we expose fresh earth.

Thinking about my dust-ness helps to calm my crazy multi-tasking anxiety about whether I'm getting enough done each day, accomplishing anything worthwhile, or making any headway toward my ultimate goals. I find myself too often frustrated by the daily mundane tasks required of a mother of a small child--"I can't get anything done!!" When I think this way, I know I'm losing perspective. It's so easy to let ambition and worry rob the present moment of joy and contentment.

Today the first daffodil bloomed.

 

Her loveliness brought to mind another phrase, and sent me to our little King James to look up the whole passage: "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say to you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?" (Matthew 6:28-30).

This lent, I think I will try to focus on "toiling not". Finding contentment in the mundane, appreciating the beauty right before my eyes, loving the people I'm blessed to call family, and the people who cross my path each day. Performing each task with mindfulness and gratitude, and letting anxiety and frustration fall away. 

How will you find meaning in the days of Lent this year?

For more Lenten thoughts, Eileen has a lovely reflection over at Rhythm of the Home.