Lost Muse/Found Hope

The wilderness of Lent has been a lost time for me. Like Jesus, I have been struggling to purge from my life all that tempts me to stray from God's vision for me. And at times I have lost my way.

I bought some sunflowers a while back to keep the horrific struggle of the Ukrainian people in front of me and to remind me to pray without ceasing for peace in their land. The flowers eventually drooped, just like I was doing, and they died. But in their drooping, I saw my way again. Rather than just tossing the old flowers, it occured to me that, like the Ukrainian people, though they were falling apart , in the middle of them were seeds of new life, the source of human essence, and though they fall and lie fallow, Creation will bring them to life again. So I took a drooping blossom and separated it, gluing it on a notecard with bits of red to symbolize the tragic bloodshed. Then I took the rest of the flowers and scattered them in my garden, knowing that as they settle into the earth and the sun warms them and the soil nurtures them, they will be reborn, brought back to life and grow to be beautiful sunflowers again.

I will reflect for the rest of Lent on this montage, praying for all those I know and love whose lives are a chaotic jumble or disjointed, praying that the seeds of Creation in all of us will be brought back to life and bloom again somewhere, somehow.

And one day we will be a garden of flowers blowing in the wind, reminding each other of the magnificence of the Creator.

But in the meantime, I implore you to join me in praying unceasingly for the people of Ukraine, the people of Russia and all those whose lives are ripped apart by anger and hatred.