Tend Life

Devotion for Being Apart -
June 12

I will share a devotion Sundays, and Wednesdays through Fridays.
- Kara

I repotted the church peace plant yesterday.
It had outgrown its pot - the one session planted it in nearly twelve years ago.
You can read more about that plant here.

It made me think about how we are changing and growing during this, in ways we don't yet understand and maybe can't yet see. It made me wonder about what kinds of containers will support our life together in the chapters after this one.

And it made me come back to the moment - it was also a tactile thing to do that used my body (it's heavy!) and needed my attention, and it wasn't crisis or worry or fatigue.  It was simple.  Instead of being consumed with the unknown, I was consciously tending life.

I saw my hairdresser today for the first time since January (!) She had taken six weeks off for surgery just before the pandemic hit.  I texted her when she left telling her to go easy on herself, that my experience with any surgery has been that your body takes longer to recover than you think it will.
Today she thanked me for that text, and said it helped her, because even though they told her six weeks, it's been four months and she only this week feels like she is recovered.  We talked about how hard it is to let your body do what it needs to, but also how amazing it is that your body does get there.  Healing is really hard work. It takes exactly the amount of time that it needs to take.

I am finding that a lot these days. I have an agenda for my body. It is night - I will sleep now and wake up rested.  I am taking the day off - I will get the rest and energy I need and come back ready.  Or for my mind -  I have this thing to accomplish and will focus and get it done in the amount of time I have set aside for it.  Or my children - you can cry and get over it and move on in a logical amount of time, right?  We have that with our society  - it would be nice to be done fighting about things. It would be lovely to recognize the problem of racism and then get it fixed and done with, whether out there or inside our own selves.  But it doesn't work that way.  Change is slow, deep work, that takes remembering again and again, noticing again and again, coming back to what's actually here and letting things heal and unfold because we are tending the life. 

And in the midst of all this - we are still sick and getting each other sick - with an actual virus, which we can't see and can't just fix.  This is exhausting. We wish it were over. Shouldn't it be over by now? Maybe if we act like it's over, that will make it over? Alas, it isn't so.  We must live the moment we are in right now.  It's the only way.

So, tend life. Within you, around you. Instead of being consumed with the unknown, be in this moment, and right here, tend life. Put your hands in the dirt. Take naps. Notice hunger and eat. Let tears come when they want to, for as long as they want to.  Laughter too. See the invitations in front of you and respond - there is life popping up all around us, calling to us to join in.  Be gentle with those around you. Be gentle with yourself. We are changing and growing during this, in ways we don't yet understand and maybe can't yet see.  That's really hard work. Let it happen in the way it needs to.  

---

CONNECTING RITUAL:

Perhaps tonight before bed, whatever time that is in each of our homes, weight pray on this way and so join our souls with each other and the people of the whole earth:

Lord God,
you have called your servants to ventures
of which we cannot see the ending,
by paths yet untrodden,
through perils unknown.
Give us faith to go out with good courage,
not knowing where we go,
but only that your hand is leading us
and your love supporting us;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
AMEN

(From the Lutherans - I am not sure what book but I hear them use this prayer a lot!)