Last year, our Reverend challenged us to "Notice, Name, and Nurture." I was going to make it a weekly Sunday project, but then I let it slip by. We were again encouraged to do so during this Lenten season. So, I start again.
As I was driving home from church, I was observing the icy world in which I find myself living and I am reminded of how much I have recently been craving some sign of Spring. I am so tired of the cold and snow and ice. It's been an unusually snowy winter at the edge of the Prairie. Normally, Overland Park is cold, but rather dry. We usually have about four or five snows of around five inches that sticks on the ground for several days. This year, by contrast, we've had snow on the ground almost continuously since right before Christmas.
Currently, it is icing.
And, so I noticed this craving. And, I am naming it "Anticipation."
Anticipation fits nicely with the Lenten season. It is during the season of Lent that we prepare for and anticipate the return and resurrection of Christ. It was the time Jesus spent fasting in the wilderness. It is a time of reflection, anticipation, and hope as well as a time of fasting and abstinence.
Now, the difficulty is in the nurture part of Notice, Name, Nurture. How can I nurture want, desire, awareness of not having something wanted? How can I nurture what feels like deprivation?
Well, it would be like chocolate. If I had chocolate daily, would that chocolate taste as sweet? If every day was filled with flowers and blooms and 75 degrees and running without concern for clothing needs. If every day was easy and without care, would it be as welcomed?
I long for and anticipate the first snow crocus in a way I probably never appreciated when I lived in California with the year round flowers. I long for an anticipate the day when I can pull on a pair of shorts and a shirt and go for a run without concern for being too cold (or too hot).
These are joys I would never have appreciated to the depths of which I appreciate them if I had them year round. And, so without anticipation, there is less joy. We appreciate more the things that we cannot have whenever we crave them. And, so, I notice and name anticipation and I will appreciate the times without so that I can better receive the joys they bring when they arrive:
asparagus
flowers
sun
warmth
running without concern for cold
sandals
raspberries
tomato, basil, mozzarella salad
kids playing in the cul-de-sac
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