Cycles of Life, Cycles of Lent
It’s March and already the trees are blooming. Instead of the snow flurries of winter, we have the floating petals of the spring. It’s a joyous feeling to leave for class every morning anticipating a bush whose colors are beginning to show or a patch of daffodils that will already have their faces turned toward the sun.
Every year, our bodies react similarly to the change of seasons. Many of us are experiencing the similar sensation of noticing birdsong from in the trees, transitioning from chilly mornings to balmy afternoons, and sneezing away pollen with watery eyes. This time of year, our bodies anticipate a great burst of life as God’s Creation shows itself.
Our hearts anticipate the seasons as well, as we center our spiritual practice around the church calendar. The period of Lent leading up to Easter morning is a time dedicated to repentance and renewal, as we remember the life of Jesus on His way to the cross. For me, this anticipation in my faith is tied to physical seasons on earth. Spring is associated with repentance and renewal as late fall and the winter is associated with thoughts of Christ’s coming. The church calendar provides us temporal beings with a reminder of the life of Jesus here on earth and the eternal life for which we are destined. It is a remembrance and an expectation.
And yet, our hearts are never the same from year to year. This year, my heart is full of joy in savoring the last few weeks of my time in college, of anxiety about what is next to come, of grieving as I look on time that I will never get back in the same way, and of reflection on and gratitude for a season of four college years well-spent. My spirit is different now than it will be in other years, yet each year it is filled both with the cry “Lord, forgive me for I have sinned,” and with hope in the resurrection of Christ.
As my perspective changes every year and I gain more experience and understanding of the world, I have become immensely grateful for the beauty of reliability in both the seasonal and church calendars. There is an excitement every spring at seeing the bushes that died last fall–and all the falls before–flower once more. This excitement is not dampened by having seen it before, but perhaps encouraged because I anticipate that gaiety of spring which I have known and look forward to as a different person than who I have been before. Through this, I have realized the importance of coming into the season of Lent with a heart open to what is newly in store for me in this familiar season.